ISTANBUL/LRAPER/07/02/2006 – His Beatitude Mesrob II, Armenian Patriarch of Istanbul and All Turkey, expressed his sentiments of sympathy on the assasination of the Revd. Fr. Andrea Santoro in Trabzon.
Fr. Santoro was shot dead last Sunday, 5 February 2006, by a 16-year-old juvenile delinquent currently registered as a student at the Fatih High School in Trabzon.
The youth, whose identity has not yet been released by the Security Department, is originally from the village of Duzluk, near the town of Vakfikebir in Trabzon.
Fr. Santoro’s remains were brought to Istanbul by plane, on Tuesday, 7 February 2006, accompanied by His Excellency Bishop Luigi Padovese, Vicar Apostolic in Anatolia, and an Italian consul. On Wednesday, his remains will be flown to Rome where the funerary services will be held.
Patriarch Mesrob II sent a message of condolence to His Holiness Benedict XVI, mourning the death of Fr. Santoro whom he had met briefly in Antioch a few years ago. The Patriarch said that he remembers Fr. Santoro’s dedication to the Lord Jesus Christ, his joyful attitude and the profound love and willingness to reach out to the Muslim neighbours. He informed the Pope that in all the Armenian churches in Turkey a memorial service would be held fort he repose of the Fr. Santoro’s soul. The Patriarch concluded his letter praying that all sorts of violence may be overcome and the peace of Christ prevail in the world.
Patriarch Mesrob sent similar letters to His Eminence Cardinal Camillo Ruini, Vicar Apostolic of Rome; His Excellency Archbishop Antonio Lucibello, Apostolic Nuncio in Ankara; His Excellency Bishop Luigi Padovese, Vicar Apostolic in Anatolia; and a classmate of the deceased, His Excellency Bishop Vincenzo Paglia of Terni-Narni-Amelia.
NTV: REACTION TO THE CARICATURES OF THE PROPHET
As reported by the Compass Direct correspondent in Turkey, Barbara G. Baker (http://www.compassdirect.org/en/lead.php), the private NTV television station reported late Tuesday afternoon: “during his first interrogation the youth confessed that he committed the murder as a reaction against the caricatures of the prophet Muhammad.”
Speculation had remained high in Turkey for the past 48 hours as to whether the killer’s motive was linked to publication of controversial Danish cartoons depicting the Muslim prophet Muhammad as a terrorist. Thousands of Turks attended public protests this past weekend in many Turkish cities and towns.
TIMING NOT INCIDENTAL
“The fact that he was killed at this point in time does not seem incidental to me,” Luigi Padovese, the apostolic vicar of Anatolia, told Asia News yesterday from Trabzon. “Besides, the atmosphere here [in Turkey] is too heated, not to say over-heated. And here too, fanatical Islamists can be found.”
Hours after the murder, Papal Nuncio Antonio Lucibello confirmed to the press that the attacker had shouted “Allahu akbar” (God is great) as he ran out of the church. Although the phrase is an Arabic acclamation of prayer, it is also used as a rallying cry by Islamist militants.
Eyewitnesses to the murder included a young Turkish employee of the church standing near the kneeling Santoro and the Italian priest’s niece who lived with him. The rest of the congregation had already left the chapel sanctuary.
In an initial interview, Trabzon Governor Huseyin Yavuzdemir told the semi-official Anatolia News Agency that local police knew about previous threats and media reports against the priest over alleged attempts to convert Muslims. But the governor said there was no indication that the church was involved in missionary work, and the priest had not requested police protection.
Another theory given prominence in the Turkish press alleged that the local mafia controlling human trafficking in the Black Sea region might have ordered the murder. Fr. Santoro had made concerted efforts to rescue Russian and other foreign women involved in prostitution rings in Trabzon.
Barbara G. Baker reminded that several newspapers even fielded the notion that the youthful murderer was a right-wing fan of Mehmet Ali Agca, an unbalanced criminal who had attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1981.
But whatever the motive, Turkish government authorities swiftly condemned the murder.
“We believe it is entirely an individual act,” Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul told the press yesterday, “but we don’t know the reason behind it or who encouraged it.”
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed dismay over the murder, which he suggested could be linked to the controversial cartoon images. “We’re extremely saddened with such an incident,” Erdogan said, “especially after developments in Denmark,” where the caricatures were first published.
“One cannot look for a solution from the barrel of a gun,” Erdogan declared. “This is the wish and objective of those who want a clash of civilizations.”
Memorial rites for the slain priest were held yesterday afternoon in Trabzon. Today a Turkish military plane flew Santoro’s body to Italy, where his funeral is set tomorrow at Rome’s main basilica, St. John Lateran.
Located in Trabzon’s Gazipasa district, the Santa Maria Church was built in the second half of the 19th century by order of Ottoman Sultan Abdulmecid to serve foreign Christians visiting the city. The small congregation numbers 15, church sources said.
Worrisome Development
The priest’s murder has claimed top coverage in the Italian media for the past two days. “A priest has been killed in Turkey in the name of Allah,” the Il Gioranle newspaper observed. “The atmosphere for religious minorities in Turkey is severe.”
From Ankara, Protestant Pastor Ihsan Ozbek told the top-circulation Hurriyet newspaper today that Father Santoro’s murder was “a worrisome development” for Christians in Turkey.
Quoted as chairman of the Alliance of Protestant Churches, Ozbek confirmed that members of Trabzon’s small Protestant community had been threatened recently. Without giving names, Ozbek said several Protestant Christians had been assaulted, even on the street, to the extent that some had left the city.
“We are not in a position to protect ourselves,” Ozbek said. “I want the state to take protective measures.”
A member of the Sons of Divine Providence, a Catholic religious order founded in Italy, Santoro came to live and work in Turkey in 2000. After three years in Mardin, he moved two and one-half years ago to Trabzon, a port city along the Black Sea coast.
The priest had just returned to Trabzon two days before the attack, after spending a month in Italy.
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