Turkish Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç announced that 25 suspects have been arrested and nine others released under judicial supervision in connection to a deadly attack on a Roman Catholic church in İstanbul last Sunday.
The attack claimed the life of 52-year-old Tuncer Cihan, who was not a member of the congregation, according to his family.
The shooting took place during a service at the Santa Maria Church in the Büyükdere neighborhood of İstanbul.
Tunç announced on X that the two suspected gunmen were among those arrested, thought to the members of the extremist Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on Telegram, saying it was in response to a call by the group’s leaders to target Jews and Christians.
The gunmen, identified as Amirjon Khliqov from Tajikistan and David Tanduev from Russia, are charged with membership in an illegal organization and aggravated homicide. An investigation into the incident by the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office is under way, the minister said.
After ISIL claimed responsibility for the attack, Turkish police detained 51 ISIL suspects in operations across the country in connection with the incident. Eleven of the suspects were transferred to a repatriation center to be deported, while the remaining were kept in police custody.
ISIL has carried out a string of attacks on Turkish soil, including an attack at a nightclub in İstanbul in 2017 that left 39 people dead.
