Yesterday, masked assailants carried out an attack on a Catholic church in Istanbul, killing one person. The Islamic State has credibly claimed responsibility for the attack, releasing both a report under its ‘Amaq News agency featuring a photo of the assailants and a statement issued in the name of the “Turkey wilaya” (Turkey province). These are translated in this post below. There are a couple of observations to make about this attack and the Islamic State’s responsibility for it.
First, observers should be cautious about overthinking and attaching some kind of rational ‘strategy’ to this sort of attack. Certainly, the Islamic State, in every claim of responsibility for an attack anywhere, wants to demonstrate that it is still a fighting force around the world, but as the ‘Amaq News report notes, the attack comes within the context of the Islamic State’s call for Jews and Christians to be targeted everywhere: in other words, a reiteration of spokesman Abu Hudhayfa al-Ansari’s recent call for members and supporters to kill disbelievers wherever they find them. Two Islamic State members/supporters decided to conduct the attack on the church as an gathering place for ‘disbelieving Christians’ who do not submit to the Islamic State, and they were able to do so. There is no grand strategy here of trying to play off Turkey against another state, or targeting a church on Turkish soil because of a specific policy Turkey (regarded as an ‘apostate’ state) pursued against the Islamic State in northern Syria, and the group’s members/supporters would ultimately seek to conduct such attacks regardless of Israel’s military operations in Gaza.
Second, the Islamic State’s designation of Turkey as a ‘wilaya’ is not new. Most notably, in his last video appearance in 2019, the Islamic State’s first caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi could be seen looking at a portfolio on the group’s “Turkey wilaya,” a move that was intended to illustrate how, contrary to claims of his critics, he was not a ‘distant’ caliph somehow unaware and removed from the management of his caliphate.
Below is my translation of the ‘Amaq report and the Turkey wilaya statement:
An attack by two fighters of the Islamic State on a church in the city of ‘Istanbul’ in Turkey results in the death of one Christian and the wounding of another.
Photo of the two men who carried out the attack on the Christian church in the city of ‘Istanbul’ in Turkey
Turkey- Istanbul- ‘Amaq Agency: two fighters from the Islamic State carried out an armed attack on a Christian church in the Turkish city of ‘Istanbul’. A security source told ‘Amaq Agency that on Sunday morning, the two fighters from the Islamic State attacked a Christian church in the neighbourhood of ‘Büyükdere’ in the city of ‘Istanbul.’
The source added that the attack occurred while the Christians were conducting their usual Sunday rituals, and resulted in the killing of one Christian and the wounding of another. The source confirmed that the two men who carried out the attack safely withdrew from the place where the operation was conducted. The source clarified that the attack came in response to the call by the Islamic State’s leaders to target the Jews and Christians in every place.
28 January 2024
The killing of a Christian and the wounding of another in an attack by the soldiers of the Caliphate on a church in the city of Istanbul in Turkey.
Turkey wilaya: Sunday 16 Rajab 1445 AH
With granting of success from God Almighty, a covert detachment of the soldiers of the Caliphate attacked, with pistol bullets, a gathering of the disbelieving Christians while they conducted their idolatrous rituals inside a church in the Büyükdere neighbourhood in the city of Istanbul. This resulted in the killing of a Christian and the wounding of at least one other. Praise and thanks be to God.
