World View: Terror Bombing of Coptic Christian Church in Cairo, Egypt Kills 25

Egyptian security forces inspect the scene of a bomb explosion at the Saint Peter and Sain
AFP
John J. Xenakis

This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

  • Furious Turkey vows revenge, as PKK/TAK takes credit for Istanbul bombing
  • Terror bombing of Coptic Christian church in Cairo Egypt kills 25
  • Europeans call Cairo bombing ‘terror’, but not the Istanbul bombing

Furious Turkey vows revenge, as PKK/TAK takes credit for Istanbul bombing

Aftermath of terrorist double-bombing in Istanbul on Saturday (Hurriyet)
Aftermath of terrorist double-bombing in Istanbul on Saturday (Hurriyet)

The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), a terrorist offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), has claimed responsibility for the double bombing in Istanbul on Saturday. At least 38 people were killed, and 155 were injured.

The TAK has already taken credit for a February 17 attack in Ankara, killing 28 people, a March 13 bombing in Ankara that killed 37 people, and a June 8 attack in Istanbul that killed 11 people. There were at least three other terror attacks in Turkey this year, perpetrated by the PKK and by the so-called Islamic State (IS or ISIS or ISIL or Daesh), and there was also the July 15 coup attempt.

The Turkish people feel vulnerable and afraid, and a furious president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed revenge:

They should know that we won’t leave them unpunished. They should know that they are going to pay a heavy price. My people should have no doubt that we will carry out the struggle against terror until the very end. We wore our burial robes when we took this road…

No one should have any doubt about our fight against terrorism. We are the owners of this country and will not leave it to those scum if they aim to scare us with such attacks.

Interior minister Süleyman Soylu said:

Sooner or later, we will have our vengeance. This blood will not be left on the ground, no matter what the price, what the cost.

Hurriyet (Ankara) and Guardian (London)

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Terror bombing of Coptic Christian church in Cairo Egypt kills 25

At least 25 people were killed and 49 others injured on Sunday morning in a terrorist explosion in the chapel of St Peter and St Paul (El-Botroseya) adjoining Saint Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo Egypt. No one has yet claimed responsibility.

Cairo has not yet had a chance to recover from two terror attacks on Friday. First, an IED placed next to two security roadblocks in Giza killed six security personnel, and injured three others. Next, also on Friday, one civilian was killed and three security personnel were injured by a bomb in Egypt’s Kafr Al-Sheikh governorate.

Sunday’s explosion took place during Sunday prayers. In these services, the men site on one side of the church, and the women sit on the other side. Apparently the bomb was brought in by a woman, and so most of the casualties were women.

A furious president Abdel al-Fattah al-Sisi called the Sunday attack a part of “a war against the great Egyptian people,” and he vowed to put on trial all who have “incited, facilitated or participated” in the terrorist attack.

Orthodox Copts, who comprise about 10 percent of Egypt’s 90 million people, are the Middle East’s biggest Christian community.

Violence in general has been growing in Egypt since the “Arab spring’ in 2011 that resulted in the ouster of long-time dictator Hosni Mubarak, either because of terror attacks by al-Qaeda or so-called Islamic State (IS or ISIS or ISIL or Daesh), or because of clashes between different groups of Egyptians, including clashes between the army and peacefully protesting civilians. This has included sectarian violence between Muslim and Coptic Christians.

The worst attack on Copts occurred several weeks before the Arab Spring, with an explosion in the Two Saints Church in Alexandria on New Year’s Day 2011, killing 23. There was also a bloody massacre of Coptic Christians in November of that year, and there has have been several minor attacks on Coptic churches since the ouster of Mohammed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood government in 2013. Al-Ahram (Cairo) and Daily News Egypt and Reuters

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Europeans call Cairo bombing ‘terror’, but not the Istanbul bombing

According to Egyptian media, European governments have been falling all over each other saying that they would stand by Egypt after this terrorist attack, and support Egypt’s fight against terrorism. Such remarks were issued in statements by France’s president François Hollande. Germany’s foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, UK ambassador to Cairo John Casson, among others.

However, Turkey’s media points out that statements by European officials refuse to use the word “terror.” Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament, said, “My thoughts & solidarity with Turkish citizens, with families of victims of Istanbul attacks. I wish speedy and full recovery to the injured.” Other officials made similar statements.

However, there was one exception. Tomas Zdechovsky, a Czech member of the European Parliament, said that the terrorist group PKK must be banned from Europe. “There is no difference between Istanbul and Paris, Brussels attacks targeting civilians. Terrorism never succeeds, terrorists never win,” he said. Al Ahram (Cairo) and Anadolu (Ankara)

KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Turkey, Istanbul, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Islamic State / of Iraq and Syria/Sham/the Levant, IS, ISIS, ISIL, Daesh, Kurdistan Workers’ Party, PKK, Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, TAK, Süleyman Soylu, Egypt, chapel of St Peter and St Paul, El-Botroseya, Saint Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral, Kafr Al-Sheikh, Abdel al-Fattah al-Sisi, Hosni Mubarak, Mohammed Morsi, Muslim Brotherhood France, François Hollande. Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Britain, John Casson, Tomas Zdechovsky
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