Çağın Cihan, the nephew of the deceased, told the same Turkish news outlet: “He was my uncle. … He was a simple, innocent person and definitely an innocent victim. He was retired with a slight mental disability.”
“He had been going to church on Sundays for the last two months,” he said.
Tuncer Murat Cihan was laid to rest in a funeral on Jan. 29 held at a cemevi, an Alevi place of worship. The Alevis are Turkey’s largest religious minority. They are a sect of Shia Islam with unique Anatolian folk practices and do not perform ablution before prayers or fast for Ramadan.
According to the Turkish government, 99% of the population is Muslim, including Alevis. There are about 25,000 Roman Catholics living in Turkey, including migrants from Africa and the Philippines, according to a 2022 report by the U.S. State Department.
Catholic Bishop Massimiliano Palinuro, the apostolic vicar of Istanbul, attended Cihan’s funeral.
“He was like a pure angel. He lost his life for the community there,” Palinuro said at the funeral, according to Turkish news outlet BirGün.
“He used to come to the church previously. We loved him as a friend,” the bishop said.
According to the local mayor of Istanbul’s Sariyer district, Sukru Genc, approximately 35 to 40 people were inside the church attending Mass at the time of the attack, including the Polish Consul General Witold Lesniak and his family.
“When the first gun went off, everyone threw themselves on the ground. After the second explosion, the gun jammed and they [the attackers] came out. It is unknown what would happen next, whether the attack would continue,’” Genc told BirGün.
“During the attack, a citizen from Bayburt lost his life, a Muslim citizen. According to the priest, he was a regular visitor to the church and the priest knew this person; he said he was a good person,” the mayor said.
