Fr Nikolai, an Orthodox priest who helped everyone, has his throat cut in Dagestan
At least 20 people were killed in a coordinated and extremely violent Islamist attack against two churches and a synagogue in Derbent and Makhachkala, North Caucasus. A 66-year-old clergyman was killed in church in front of his parishioners on the day of Pentecost. Two sons of Sergokalinsky District chief are among the attackers shot dead, while the father was arrested by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB).
Makhachkala (AsiaNews) – In Dagestan, one of the most troubled republics in Russia’s North Caucasus, two Orthodox churches and a synagogue were attacked simultaneously yesterday evening in Derbent and the capital Makhachkala.
Some 20 people were killed, including 15 police officers, as well as a 66-year-old archpriest (Protoiereus), Fr Nikolai Kotelnikov, pastor of the Church of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin of God in Derbent.
The clergyman, who served the local community for 40 years, had his throat cut in front of his parishioners on the day of Pentecost. A security guard at the other Orthodox church also lost his life in the attack.
This morning, Dagestan Head Sergey Melikov said that "the anti-terrorist operation has ended," with six terrorists killed, while more accomplices and participants are being sought. Meanwhile, the counter-terrorism operation regime (KTO)[*] remains in place.
The unknown gunmen, thought to be linked to the Islamic State (IS) group, opened fire with automatic weapons on both the churches and the synagogue. In the latter case, they set the building on fire shouting "Allah is great!".
Another group of terrorists attacked a traffic police station, while another incident involving a police car was reported in Sertokala, a village near Derbent.
According to the TASS agency, two of attackers were identified as Osman and Adil Omarov, sons of the head of the Sergokalinsky District, Magomed Omarov, while Interfax claimed a nephew of the latter was also involved.
All three young men were killed in shootouts with police, while the older Omarov was arrested and is being question by the FSB.[†]
Three days of mourning were declared (24, 25 and 26 June) for the victims of the attacks in Makhachkala and Derbent.
On Facebook, journalist Vladimir Sevrinovskiy remembered Father Nikolai, who "belonged to a Cossack family from the Sunzhenskye district, a term that in Soviet times was applied to part of the Gorsky population in the North Caucasus. He was born in a Stanitsa, a Cossack host in Chechnya. He helped everyone as much as he could, never trying to deceive people. He told Muslims that he would help them too, even if he couldn't baptise them, and if they wanted to change their religion, they better go somewhere else.”
In Derbent, local radical Islamists had already targeted the church with acts of violence and intimidation, but no incidents had occurred for quite a while.
Father Nikolai visited mosques and the synagogue from time to time to maintain good relations between various communities.
The city’s synagogue was torched. A spokesman for the Patriarch of Moscow, Vladimir Legoyda, said that “it is not enough to condemn such barbaric and dastardly actions, society and the state must do everything possible to definitively exclude the possibility of these bursts of terrorism, whatever the motives that push people to carry out these acts.”
He added that “attacking men of the cloth and sacred buildings of any religion is not justifiable in any way; they are spaces where peace must reign and people can approach God in silence and in inner and outer calm, without fear of offence or violence from anywhere.”
The Patriarch of Moscow Kirill celebrated a funeral litany for the soul of Father Nikolai Kotelnikov, and the priests of the Orthodox eparchy of Makhachkala offered their support to the family of the murdered priest and to all those who were victims of the attack.
[*] Режи́м контртеррористи́ческой опера́ции (КТО).
[†] Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (Федеральная служба безопасности Российской Федерации).
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19/02/2018 10:41
30/12/2020 12:40
