Turkish Christians are shaken by last weekend’s terrorist attack on a Catholic church in Istanbul.
Claimed by ISIS, it comes amid threats which have already caused some believers to shrink back from Sunday services. And like the remaining of their nation, Christians are confused by details that eschew easy explanations.
“Everyone is somewhat nervous, questioning the long run,” said Ali Kalkandelen, president of the Association of Protestant Churches (TeK). “And for the subsequent few weeks—even months—everyone will watch their backs.”
Two masked gunmen casually walked into Mass at Santa Maria Catholic Church on Sunday morning, shot into the air, and killed one person. Security footage then shows them leaving the constructing, only barely less casually than after they entered.
A press release issued by Martin Kmetec, archbishop of Izmir and president of the Episcopal Conference of Turkey, expressed his community’s “shock” that an innocent person was killed in a “sacred space of religion in God.” It demanded higher security for churches, a curb on the culture of hatred and non secular discrimination, and that the reality be revealed.
Shortly thereafter, security services arrested two foreign nationals, from Russia and Tajikistan. ISIS later published an announcement saying the attack was in response to its call to “goal Jews and Christians in every single place.” The statement was followed by one other from a gaggle calling itself ISIS’s “Turkey Province,” which said that it fired its pistols in the course of the unbelievers’ “polytheistic rituals.”
While ISIS has conducted multiple terrorist attacks in Turkey, that is the primary claimed by a neighborhood branch. The so-called province first emerged in 2019 but had only produced one propagandistic video.
But on January 4, ISIS’s spokesman called for worldwide targeting, which it later tallied to 110 attacks in 12 countries, killing or wounding at the least 610 people. Turkey had already detained 2,086 suspected terrorists and arrested 529 since June 2023. Dozens more were detained following the Santa Maria attack, and 23 shall be deported.
Kalkandelen said that amid the continued arrests, church attendance has declined. Families have kept their children at home, while latest believers and seekers keep their distance. The TeK statement expressed condolences to the Catholic community, confidence within the authorities, and a plea to stop provocative discourse.
“This terrorist attack is clearly not an isolated or freak act,” stated the Protestant association. “From now on, the dark power behind it should be fully exposed in order that it may not … terrorize Christians, minorities, and anyone with common sense.”
Condemning the attack, Istanbul’s mayor said the second referent was imprecise.
“There are not any minorities on this city or this country, we’re all actual residents,” stated Ekrem Imamoglu. He later added, “We won’t ever allow those that attempt to disrupt our unity and peace [to attack] the places of religion in our city.”
An Istanbul parliamentarian called attacks on Christian residents “treason.” President Recep Erdoğan personally called Anton Bulai, the parish priest. Flowers and candles were laid within the Nineteenth-century cathedral, with a Turkish flag draped over the door.
Turkey is ranked No. 50 on the Open Doors World Watch List of the 50 nations where it’s hardest to be a Christian. It counts 169,000 believers within the country, while the US State Department estimates there are roughly 7,000–10,000 Protestants.
The Ecumenical Patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox church, Bartholomew I, paid his respects on the church the day after the attack. His community has recently swelled with an influx of 100,000 Russians and Ukrainians following the war. But Turkey’s 25,000 Catholics have experienced violence before.
Back in 1981, a Turkish citizen attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II. In 2006, a priest was killed within the Black Sea city of Trazbon. In 2010, a bishop was stabbed and decapitated. Located next to a fish market along the Bosphorus Straits, the Santa Maria church now making headlines had suffered threats in 2011 for illuminating its cross, and in 2016 a mob had tried to interrupt down its door.
More recently because the war in Gaza, anti-Israel graffiti was sprayed on the partitions of Istanbul’s Orthodox Church of St. Mary of the Mongols and Phanar Greek Orthodox College. Most of Turkey’s synagogues have been closed amid widespread Turkish protests.
Kalkandelen said that for the past few years, the Protestant community has witnessed only sporadic violence. Its most up-to-date annual human rights report tallied just one incident of vandalism amongst its 186 national fellowships in 2022, alongside the stabbing of a pastor and the beating of a pastor’s child.
But for greater than a decade, Turkish media has incited hostile attitudes against the West. It has increased because the Israel-Hamas war, with Erdoğan defending Hamas as a legitimate resistance group. Popular sentiment links Christians with America and Europe, Kalkandelen said, keeping the community tense.
“We were almost expecting something to occur within the country,” he said.
But what happened was odd.
“They killed one person, could have killed more, but we cannot understand why,” said Soner Tufan, general manager of Petra Media Group, a Turkish evangelical radio station. “One or many, it doesn’t matter from their perspective.”
His broadcasts have urged Christians to stay calm, he added, and there have been debates on if there was a hidden plan to spark chaos in society. Prayer has been really helpful.
Local reporting offered mixed testimony concerning the victim. Identified as 52-year-old Tuncer Cihan, footage shows gunmen following him into the church. One relative said he was mentally ailing and never actually the goal. His uncle said he was considering Christianity. It is reported that he had been attending the church since December, and Kalkandelen said Bulai, the Santa Maria priest, told him Cihan was a believer but not yet baptized. But the district mayor stated that the cleric called him simply “ person.”
Cihan was buried in an Alevi cemetery belonging to Turkey’s largest Muslim minority.
“We have two communities who’re today united in sorrow,” stated an Istanbul priest.
Such evidence might suggest an honor killing. But the mayor also stated that Bulai told him the terrorist’s gun jammed in the course of the attack. Perhaps more victims were intended.
Seated within the front row of Sunday’s Mass, unharmed, was Poland’s consul general and his family. Local reporting stated that the attackers drove a automobile from Poland over a 12 months ago but never previously used it. Furthermore, the Santa Maria church is referred to as Italian, administered by Franciscan friars. Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni visited Turkey just per week earlier.
“Maybe it was a political message,” said Kalkandelen.
Whatever the reason, it’s being received ominously by local Christians. The Istanbul priest said the community was in shock and would likely should reevaluate its security posture.
But aware of this possibility, a neighborhood Catholic praised her priest as someone who helped everyone no matter their race or religion.
“He wanted that church to be open to everyone who desired to are available,” stated Layla Yedicam, “but that’s not going to be the case anymore, I don’t think.”
The church will reopen on Thursday.
Kalkandelen has been encouraging believers to maintain going to church. He quoted 2 Timothy 1:7—God has not given us a spirit of fear. Giving in would slow church growth, he said, and with the shortage of witness, seekers might turn their back on Christ.
Whether the violence was religious or political in intention, Kalkandelen believes that it was above all a spiritual attack.
“Satan won’t ever stop attacking Christians,” he said. “Do not let this grow to be a stumbling block in our relationship with God.”
