ANOTHER ATTACK ON A PRIEST
Erol Onderoglu
Býa news centre
ish/103655/another-attack-on-a-priest
Dec 18 2007
In the last two years, there have been three murder cases of Christians
in Turkey. Now a priest in Izmir has been wounded by a young man.
On Sunday, 65-year old Catholic priest Adriano Francini said mass at
the Saint Antoine Church in the Aegean province of Izmir.
Before the service, he had met a young man, 19-year old R.B., who
said that he was considering converting to Christianity.
Suspect "got angry" After mass, Francini and the young man spoke
again. The priest said that it was not easy to convert and that certain
steps had to be taken. R.B. has said himself that he suddenly "got
angry" and stabbed the priest in the stomach. He was caught shortly
after the attack and is being questioned by anti-terrorism police.
Father Francini was takin to hospital in Izmir, where doctors have
said that he is not seriously injured.
Spate of similar attacks Although the local police believe that the
young man acted on his own, it is nevertheless the latest in a string
of attacks on Christians carried out by young male perpetrators.
The French news agency Agence France Presse (AFP) has interpreted
the attack as "the result of attacks targeting Christians in a
Muslim-majority country."
Priest Andrea Santoro was stabbed at his church in Trabzon, on the
Black Sea, on 5 February 2006. He died of his injuries. The person
confessing to the stabbing was a 16-year old male.
On 19 January 2007, Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, the
editor-in-chief of the Agos newspaper, was shot dead in front of his
office in central Istanbul. The suspected gunman, who was caught a
day later in Samsun, was 17-year old O.S..
The suspects in the murders of three employees at a Christian
publishing house in Malatya, southeastern Turkey, on 18 April 2007
are also mostly very young. Suspects Emre Gunaydin, Hamit Ceker, Cuma
Ozdemir, Salih Gurler, Abuzer Yildirim, Kursat Kocadag and Mehmet
Gokce are still being tried at the Malatya Heavy Penal Court.
Babacan "saddened" Ali Babacan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and
Chief Negotiator in EU accession talks, is currently in Paris. He
said that he was saddened by the attack: "Whatevery the reason, I
am saddened by the attack. I have heard that the life [of Francini]
is not in danger. I wish him a speedy recovery." (EO/TK)
–Boundary_(ID_fF3poBQoIIRvZpo/NYJ9/Q)–