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AKI, Italy
Feb 2 2007
TURKEY: ITALY'S TOP BISHOP TO HONOUR MURDERED PRIEST
Rome, 2 Feb. (AKI) - The head of Italy's Catholic bishops'
conference, Cardinal Camillo Ruini will celebrate an anniversary mass
in Trabzon, Turkey next Monday for an Italian priest murdered in the
Black Sea port city. "The ceremony will be strictly private as we
wish that the media will not give it too much emphasis," Turkey's
Catholic apostolic vicar, Monsignor Luigi Padovese, told Adnkronos
International (AKI). A 16-year-old Muslim boy shot Father Andrea
Santoro, 60, twice after mass at the priest's Santa Maria Church in
Trabzon on 5 February 2006.
The Vatican's ambassador to Turkey, Monsignor Antonio Lucibello will
join Ruini in the mass celebration at the Santa Maria Church. Ruini,
accompanied by Santoro's mother and sister will fly to Turkey on
Sunday, Padovese said.
"The moment is very delicate and we prefer to maintain discretion to
avoid problems," added Padovese referring to tensions in Turkey
triggered by the assassination of a prominent ethnic Armenian
journalist, Hrant Dink in Istanbul on 19 January.
Santoro's killer, identified as Q.A. in news reports because of his
age, was sentenced to 18 years and 10 months last October.
While it is still not clear if the murder - which took place at the
height of worldwide Muslim protests against the publishing in several
Western nations of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed - was religously
motivated, witnesses allegedly heard Q.A. shouting "Allah Akbar" (God
is great) after he opened fire.
On Thursday a storm broke out in Turkey over video images showing
police posing with Dink's alleged killer and the Turkish flag. An
ultra-nationalist, Ogun Samast, 17 is charged with killing Dink, an
Orthodox Christian who had angered Turkish nationalists with repeated
assertions that the mass killings of Armenians during the ealy 20th
century was genocide - a claim which is regarded as a crime in
Turkey.
Human rights activists have alleged that Dink's murder was plotted by
ultra-nationalists supported by elements within the police, the
bureaucracy and the military. The images broadcast on Thursday have
added ammunition to those who claim some officials may have
instigated or even colluded in the planning of Dink's murder.
Turkish police authorties deny any wrongdoing.
Tens of thousands of people marched at Dink's funeral in Istanbul,
many of them chanting for Turkey to abolish a repressive article in
the penal code used against many intellectuals, including Dink and
Nobel-prize winning Turkish author Orhan Pamuk, who have spoken on
the controverial topic of the Armenian massacre or the status of
Christians in mostly Muslim Turkey.
Feb 2 2007
TURKEY: ITALY'S TOP BISHOP TO HONOUR MURDERED PRIEST
Rome, 2 Feb. (AKI) - The head of Italy's Catholic bishops'
conference, Cardinal Camillo Ruini will celebrate an anniversary mass
in Trabzon, Turkey next Monday for an Italian priest murdered in the
Black Sea port city. "The ceremony will be strictly private as we
wish that the media will not give it too much emphasis," Turkey's
Catholic apostolic vicar, Monsignor Luigi Padovese, told Adnkronos
International (AKI). A 16-year-old Muslim boy shot Father Andrea
Santoro, 60, twice after mass at the priest's Santa Maria Church in
Trabzon on 5 February 2006.
The Vatican's ambassador to Turkey, Monsignor Antonio Lucibello will
join Ruini in the mass celebration at the Santa Maria Church. Ruini,
accompanied by Santoro's mother and sister will fly to Turkey on
Sunday, Padovese said.
"The moment is very delicate and we prefer to maintain discretion to
avoid problems," added Padovese referring to tensions in Turkey
triggered by the assassination of a prominent ethnic Armenian
journalist, Hrant Dink in Istanbul on 19 January.
Santoro's killer, identified as Q.A. in news reports because of his
age, was sentenced to 18 years and 10 months last October.
While it is still not clear if the murder - which took place at the
height of worldwide Muslim protests against the publishing in several
Western nations of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed - was religously
motivated, witnesses allegedly heard Q.A. shouting "Allah Akbar" (God
is great) after he opened fire.
On Thursday a storm broke out in Turkey over video images showing
police posing with Dink's alleged killer and the Turkish flag. An
ultra-nationalist, Ogun Samast, 17 is charged with killing Dink, an
Orthodox Christian who had angered Turkish nationalists with repeated
assertions that the mass killings of Armenians during the ealy 20th
century was genocide - a claim which is regarded as a crime in
Turkey.
Human rights activists have alleged that Dink's murder was plotted by
ultra-nationalists supported by elements within the police, the
bureaucracy and the military. The images broadcast on Thursday have
added ammunition to those who claim some officials may have
instigated or even colluded in the planning of Dink's murder.
Turkish police authorties deny any wrongdoing.
Tens of thousands of people marched at Dink's funeral in Istanbul,
many of them chanting for Turkey to abolish a repressive article in
the penal code used against many intellectuals, including Dink and
Nobel-prize winning Turkish author Orhan Pamuk, who have spoken on
the controverial topic of the Armenian massacre or the status of
Christians in mostly Muslim Turkey.