ISTANBUL There are bullet holes in the church wall. They remind us of the shocking event that befell the parishioners of the Catholic Church of Santa Maria in Istanbul a couple of months ago.
Preparations for the Easter Mass are currently underway in the church, but not as many participants as last year are expected. The corridor to the altar is decorated with palm leaves, outside the church in a corner there is ragweed.
Pastor Anton Bulai was holding Sunday mass on January 28 when two fighters from the terrorist organization ISIS entered the church and started shooting.
Pastor Anton Bulai tells about the attack on his church in Istanbul.
– I saw from the altar when people started screaming in terror and fell to the ground in fear, Bulai recalls.
He quickly noticed two masked men with weapons near the door. The attackers started shooting, but the shooting suddenly stopped soon. Both guns had jammed.
In this video you can see the bullet holes:
There were thirty people in the church at the time of the attack. In the end, only one lost his life in the shooting.
– It was a miracle. The attackers stood in the middle of the church and pointed their guns at us, but could no longer shoot, says Bulai.
Turkish authorities caught the attackers the same day.
The networks extend to Europe
The attackers belonged to Isis-K, a sub-organization of the Isis organization. Its roots are in the borderlands of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
It is the same organization that announced itself as the perpetrator of the concert attack in Moscow last week.
In the video, you can see how much damage the organization’s attack caused in Moscow:
Turkey has not escaped terrorist attacks over the years, but the January church attack was ISIS-K’s first strike in the country. Turkish media said after the attack, citing official sources, that the suspected members of Isis-K had planned to set up a training camp on a farm on the outskirts of Istanbul. From there, the organization would have sent terrorists to the United States to carry out attacks there.
According to Turkish authorities, the Moscow attackers had been radicalized elsewhere. At the same time, the Turkish authorities said they had arrested 40 terrorist suspects in eight different provinces.
Isis-K’s recent attacks speak of the organization’s global networks, which now extend even to Europe. That’s what he says Ihsanullah Tipu Mehsud.
Mehsud is a journalist and founding member of The Khorasan Diary, a research organization that follows the activities of Isis-K. The research organization operates in Islamabad, Pakistan.
– Isis-K has proven to be the most dangerous of all Isis divisions and regional networks. Isis-K has been involved in almost all of Isis’s recent attacks in Russia, Turkey and Iran, Mehsud says.
Mehsud points out that the authorities of various EU countries, such as Germany, have arrested suspected members of Isis-K recently. Several countries in addition to Turkey, including France and Italy, have now raised their alert status in case of terrorist attacks.
– The US authorities have also warned about Isis-K’s intentions and ability to strike inside the country.
The Taliban’s rise to power set Isis-K in motion
According to Mehsud, the rise of the Taliban and the resulting exile in Afghanistan made Isis-K expand to the west.
This video shows the moments of August 2021 that Isis-K is remembered for in Kabul:
– Isis-K took advantage of this opportunity and has spread a huge amount of propaganda to attract Afghan refugees to join their forces.
For the Taliban, Isis-K is an enemy, and especially during the past year, it has caused a significant decrease in attacks inside Afghanistan.
– The Taliban’s intelligence service has carried out several successful operations in which leading figures of Isis-K have been caught or killed, Mehsud says.
Tajiks helpful
In addition to Afghans and Pakistanis, Isis-K includes members from Afghanistan’s northern neighbor, Tajikistan. What has recently been noticeable is the large number of Tajik citizens who have been the perpetrators of the attacks.
For example, according to the Russian authorities, the attackers in Moscow are Tajiks. Also, one of those caught in the Istanbul church attack was from Tajikistan, the other from Russia.
According to Mehsud, Isis-K quickly changed its recruitment strategy at the beginning. In addition to the Pathans, the Taliban’s ethnic group, it began recruiting fighters from Tajiks and Uzbeks so that its fighters would not be so easily noticed.
– It is easy for Tajiks to travel to Central Asian countries such as Turkey and even Russia without a visa.
“I saw fear in the eyes”
A Turk is sitting in the pew of Santa Maria Viktor Yuks. Like Pastor Bulai, he was there when the attack happened in January.
Yuks had to look one of the attackers in the eyes as he pointed his weapon at him.
– I saw fear in his eyes when the gun didn’t work, says Yuks.
Yuks thinks it’s clear from the man’s appearance that the man was Central Asian.
Yuks has been following the news from Moscow with sadness. In his opinion, Russia did the right thing by presenting abused terrorist suspects to the media, even though it caused widespread aggravation in the world. In his opinion, it is too easy for terrorists to get to Europe.
Viktor Yuks had come to meditate at Santa Maria Church in Istanbul last week.
– In ten years they will be on the loose again killing people, he says pointing to judgments issued by Belgium About the Brussels attacks by ISIS in 2016.
According to Yuks, blind killing cannot be justified by any religion.
– These people have no morals.
Pastor Bulai can’t say why exactly Santa Maria was chosen as the target of Isis-K out of all the churches in Istanbul.
– They failed to create hatred between Christians and Muslims, on the contrary, Bulai states.
Immediately after the attack, the imams and muftis of the mosques visited Bulai at the church to express their condolences.
The police guarded the church closely over Easter. Still, many parishioners are still scared, especially after the events in Moscow.
– It is not easy to return to a place where something so horrible happened, says Bulai.