Islamic State Claims Istanbul Church Shooting, First Attack in Turkey Since 2017

The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for Sunday’s shooting at a Roman Catholic church in Istanbul, marking the first ISIS attack in Turkey since 2017.

Two masked gunmen opened fire on Sunday services at the Santa Maria Church in Istanbul shortly before noon local time. One person was reportedly killed in the attack. The church is located in the Sariyer district of Istanbul, where a large number of Europeans live.

Local officials initially believed the shooting was a targeted assassination, but later they said the only thing preventing further casualties was the attacker’s gun jamming.

The lone casualty was identified as 52-year-old Tuncer Cihan, reportedly a Turkish member of the minority Alevi Muslim sect who paid visits to the church on occasion. Cihan’s relatives told local media he suffered a “slight mental disability.”

“According to the priest, he was constantly going to church and the priest knew this person and referred to him as ‘a good person,” Sariyer district mayor Sukru Genc said on Monday.

Turkish officials, including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, quickly condemned the attack. Erdogan promised the “necessary steps are being taken to catch the perpetrators.” 

Dozens of arrests were made on Sunday and Monday, including the two alleged shooters, described by Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya as “a Tajikistani and a Russian national” believed to be members of ISIS. 

By Tuesday morning, Turkish police had raided 30 locations and arrested 47 people in connection with the attack.

“We will never tolerate those who try to disrupt the peace of our country – terrorists, their collaborators, both national and international criminal groups, and those who aim at our unity and solidarity,” said Yerlikaya.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack on Tuesday through its “news service” Amaq. The statement included photos of the masked shooters and said they “attacked a gathering of Christian unbelievers during their polytheistic ceremony.”

The statement said the church attack was carried out “in response to calls by Islamic State leaders to attack Jews and Christians everywhere.”

The ISIS statement claimed one person was killed and another wounded in the attack, while Turkish officials say there were no injuries beyond the death of Tuncer Cihan.

One of the 40 people in the church at the time of the attack was Witold Lesniak, the Polish consul in Istanbul, who attended services along with his wife and two children. Erdogan spoke with Lesniak on Sunday to express his “condolences and well-wishes to the entire community.”

Turkey arrested 25 suspected ISIS members in early January on suspicion of plotting attacks against churches and synagogues. The last ISIS mass casualty attack in Turkey was a 2017 nightclub shooting in Istanbul that killed 39 people from various countries, including Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Canada, India, and Israel.