Predictably, and unfortunately, the climate created by the Mohammed cartoons can offer a pretext for murder. With a cry of “Allah is great”, an underage killer shot an Italian priest in the heart from point-blank range. The first victim of a campaign that promises to be long, bloody and painful, is a 60-year-old priest, Fr Andrea Santoro. Originally from the province of Latina, Fr Santoro was the minister of the Catholic community in Trebizond, known as the capital of the Black Sea and with its million residents one of the most important cities in Muslim Turkey. The priest, who set up and managed the Finestra per il Medio Oriente (Window for the Middle East) web site, was noted for his commitment to promoting dialogue between Christianity and Islam. His task did not appear to be a particularly difficult one since Trebizond has always been regarded as a paragon of tolerance. The ancient capital of a tiny kingdom, the city was given an ambitiously imperial configuration by its founder Alexius II Comnenus in 1204 after the sack of Constantinople by the Crusaders, which marked the end of the Byzantine Empire. Even after the creation of the Turkish republic by Kemal Ataturk, who was anything but sympathetic to Turkey’s Christian minorities, Trebizond’s church, dedicated to Saint Mary, remained open. 

Built in 1871, the church has since then been the focus of the small but active Catholic community. Fr Santoro celebrated Mass yesterday as he did every Sunday, tackling his favourite topic again in his sermon and inviting the congregation not to abandon tolerance at such a crucial moment. The reference to the cartoons was clear, because even in moderate, secular Turkey, publication of the Mohammed caricatures has provoked outraged reactions with popular demonstrations and vigorous protests. 

Currently, there are two versions of the incident based on eye-witness reports. Both versions are in fact fairly similar, varying only in some of the details. According to the first version, when the congregation left after the service, the priest stayed behind to pray. The young fanatic approached him from behind and with a cry of “Allah is great”, fired twice. The second and more probable version places the murder at the entrance of the church. At the end of the service, Fr Santoro closed the main door after saying goodbye to some of the people who had been attending. That was when the young killer, who was wearing a sheepskin jacket and dark trousers with black stripes, knocked on the church door. The priest opened it and the murderer shot him, shouting praise to Allah before making his escape. He was recognized by onlookers who were still near the church, which implicitly confirms the second version of events. Eye witnesses, including an Italian woman, Loredana Palmieri, and at least two Turks helped the Trebizond police to identify the man. Officers are looking for the killer, whose name and age (16-17) are known. Is he mentally unbalanced? He may be, but the bishop of Anatolia, Luigi Padovese, believes that he could have acted out of revenge in the climate that has been created in the Muslim world. However, he does not rule out other possibilities. Nor has the religious revenge motive been ruled out by the governor of Trebizond, Huseyn Havuzdemir. Like the local chief of police, Mr Havuzdemir is a controversial figure because he has been unable to suppress a growing wave of criminality and an ever more dangerous network of local mafias. Not long ago, two well-known Trebizond footballers who refused to pay protection money to one of the local mafia bosses were brutally punished. Their cars and a shop they owned were destroyed. However, no one had so far dared to attack the church, which is a monument to dialogue often mentioned as an example by Turkish leaders from the Islamic party. 

In 1994, the vandalism of one of the church’s external walls provoked reactions of disgust in Turkish newspapers. A supporter of an extreme rightwing movement, a Grey Wolf from the same group as John Paul II’s attacker, Mehmet Alì Agca, climbed over the church garden wall and painted slogans in support of the MHP, the most nationalist of Turkey’s political parties. 

Ultranationalists also criticized the election of Benedict XVI, whom they portrayed as an enemy of Turkey because when he was still a cardinal, he expressed serious misgivings about Turkey achieving full membership of the European Union. However, that controversy quickly died down. This year, Benedict XVI has been officially invited by the president of the Turkish republic Ahmed Necdet Sezer. There may not be any great affection between Christianity and Islam in Turkey, but neither is there the hatred that prompted a young man to kill an unarmed priest yesterday in Trebizond. 

Antonio Ferrari