First statement from Interior Minister Yerlikaya regarding the church attack
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya appeared before the press and made the first statement. He shared the information that the individuals who carried out the attack on the Santa Maria Church are foreign nationals.
AA
An armed attack was carried out by two masked individuals during Sunday mass today at the Santa Maria Church in Sarıyer, Istanbul. A person named Tuncer Cihan lost his life in the attack.
Kazım Aydemir, who claimed to be the uncle of Tuncer Cihan, who passed away in the attack, said, "He had no enemies. He would come to mass with me from time to time. He was a clean, very good person. God took him early. He had no hostility toward anyone. I was at another church, I received the news by phone and came here immediately."
"WE ASSESS THAT THEY ARE ISIS MEMBERS"
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya provided information about the incident at a press conference held late at night.
Minister Yerlikaya stated, "Our citizen named Tuncer Cihan lost his life in the armed attack carried out during Sunday mass at the church in Sarıyer today.
Following the attack, our security forces launched a very rapid and comprehensive operation. Raids were conducted on 30 separate addresses, and 47 people were detained.
The murder suspects were captured in a raid conducted at 22:00. One of the attackers is a Tajik national and the other is a Russian national; we assess that both are members of ISIS," he said.