Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Sunday that an armed attack occurred at a Catholic church in Istanbul during prayer, resulting in one death and several injuries. Initial media reports mentioned that one person was injured in the attack.
The minister stated on the social network “X”: “Today, at 11:40 (time corresponds to Moscow time), citizen D.T. was killed as a result of an armed attack on the Saint Mary Catholic Church in the Sariyer district of Istanbul (north of the city).”
Minister Yerlikaya added that the attackers were wearing masks and were “participating” in Sunday prayers at the church. He announced that a comprehensive investigation into the attack had been launched and that the search for the attackers was underway.
Turkey has been the site of numerous significant terrorist incidents over recent years, which have been attributed to a variety of groups, including ISIS and Kurdish militants. The wave of attacks began gaining prominence in July 2015 with a deadly explosion in the southeastern town of Suruc, near the Syrian border, which claimed at least 30 lives and left nearly 100 people wounded. This event marked the beginning of a series of violent incidents that would extend over the next several years.
The latter part of 2015 saw further escalations, with one of the most devastating attacks occurring in October, when two explosions struck a peace rally in the heart of Ankara, killing at least 95 people and injuring hundreds more. This attack was one of the deadliest in the country’s modern history and signaled an alarming increase in the scale and frequency of terrorist activities within Turkey.
The following year, 2016, was marred by continued violence, including a high-profile attack on Istanbul’s Ataturk International Airport in June, where gunmen opened fire on travelers before detonating explosives, leading to 41 deaths and nearly 239 injuries. The violence continued into 2017, starting off with a tragic incident on New Year’s Day when a gunman stormed the Reina nightclub in Istanbul, resulting in at least 39 fatalities in an attack later claimed by ISIS.
More recent incidents include a car bomb explosion in the southern town of Reyhanli in July 2019, which resulted in three deaths, and an improvised explosive device detonation in Diyarbakir province in September 2019, killing seven people. The most recent notable attack occurred in November 2022, when an explosion on a busy pedestrian street in central Istanbul claimed at least six lives and injured several others.
