5 May 2013 /TODAYSZAMAN.COM, İSTANBUL
An unknown assailant opened fire into the air outside a small Armenian church in İstanbul on Sunday while an Orthodox sermon was being delivered inside.
No one was hurt in the incident but it has made the Armenian community extremely uneasy as it came only a day after an anti-Armenian organization burned a copy of an Armenian newspaper in Iğdır province.
The church where the incident happened is in Gedikpaşa, not far from the official Armenian Patriarchate. Garo Paylan, who was attending the event, said that someone fired seven shots into the air while standing in front of the church's gate. He said that the congregation panicked and ran outside. Paylan also added that he believed the reason why this happened in front of the smaller church is because there are fewer security cameras around it as opposed to the street where the patriarchate is located.
He said police had arrived at the scene and started investigations to identify the shooter. They were also to review footage from nearby cameras.
Paylan noted that an extreme right organization that calls itself the International Association to Fight Unfounded Armenian Allegations (ASİM-DER) had burned a copy of the Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos in Iğdır on Saturday, adding that he did not believe it was a coincidence that the shooting came a day after the ASİM-DER incident.
Paylan also said that the Armenian community and Agos could file "all the complaints in the world" but the rest of the country should stand up against such acts of racism.
ASİM-DER, an organization founded in 2002, denies that it is racist or that it has links to coup-plotting organizations that have been found to have devised plots targeting non-Muslim establishments and community leaders.
Agos' previous editor-in-chief Hrant Dink was killed by an ultra-nationalist teenager in 2007. The court said that the man had acted alone but a higher court is currently reviewing the case and its prosecutor has said that the presence of an organized network in Dink's murder is evident.
Dink's lawyers also presented evidence during the initial trial indicating that there were active efforts by some in the police and gendarmerie forces to obscure evidence, cover up the killing and protect the hit man and other individuals believed to have solicited him for the murder.
The church where the incident happened is in Gedikpaşa, not far from the official Armenian Patriarchate. Garo Paylan, who was attending the event, said that someone fired seven shots into the air while standing in front of the church's gate. He said that the congregation panicked and ran outside. Paylan also added that he believed the reason why this happened in front of the smaller church is because there are fewer security cameras around it as opposed to the street where the patriarchate is located.
He said police had arrived at the scene and started investigations to identify the shooter. They were also to review footage from nearby cameras.
Paylan noted that an extreme right organization that calls itself the International Association to Fight Unfounded Armenian Allegations (ASİM-DER) had burned a copy of the Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos in Iğdır on Saturday, adding that he did not believe it was a coincidence that the shooting came a day after the ASİM-DER incident.
Paylan also said that the Armenian community and Agos could file "all the complaints in the world" but the rest of the country should stand up against such acts of racism.
ASİM-DER, an organization founded in 2002, denies that it is racist or that it has links to coup-plotting organizations that have been found to have devised plots targeting non-Muslim establishments and community leaders.
Agos' previous editor-in-chief Hrant Dink was killed by an ultra-nationalist teenager in 2007. The court said that the man had acted alone but a higher court is currently reviewing the case and its prosecutor has said that the presence of an organized network in Dink's murder is evident.
Dink's lawyers also presented evidence during the initial trial indicating that there were active efforts by some in the police and gendarmerie forces to obscure evidence, cover up the killing and protect the hit man and other individuals believed to have solicited him for the murder.