The Mersin monks tell reporters they do not believe that the incident was the work of a lone attacker but rather part of a wider plot designed to drive the faithful away from church.

Mersin (AsiaNews) – The young man who attacked monks in a church in Mersin, Turkey, was not a thief. His actions are instead part of a concerted campaign of intimidation and violence against Christians in Turkey with the goal of scaring away the faithful, said the monks from the Mersin parish during a meeting with about 20 reporters.

"We have submitted a statement on the church attack in which we say that the young man did not come into the church to steal but to spread terror. We also call on the police to investigate what is behind the increasing number of attacks against the Church and Christian places of worship," Fr Hanri Leylek told AsiaNews.

"These are not actions by lone madmen, but deeds by an organisation that wants to scare the faithful away from the Church. For two days children have not come to school and parents are worried. The goal is to intimidate those who are different, but Christians are not outsiders; they are Turkish like everybody else," he stressed.

Locals are different. "There is no problem between Christians and Muslims; they love each other. We got a lot of solidarity when Father Andrea was killed and when other incidents took place. Even the police arrives quickly; in just three or four minute," he explained. "Christians are not some kind of foreign body, but were born here and all of them work for the good of the nation, which is their own good. Our church was built 150 years ago."

"Reporters asked us whether there was a connection between recent events and the Muhammad cartoon controversy," said Fr Leylek, "and we said we did not believe there was any link because the attacks against Catholics began much earlier."
"For some time," he explained, "some TV shows and newspaper articles have been targeting us, stressing what divides us [from Muslims] and not what unites us, emphasising differences and hatred rather than love".

As for newspaper reports about the incident, "reporters said that they simply quoted the young attacker who said here [in the church] people have sex; it is not a place of worship. But we told them they should have also heard the other [our] version and the police report".

Meanwhile the police released the young man, claiming that they cannot detain people accused of crimes that entail sentences of two years or less.  (FP)

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