In Turkey, Manhunt On for Killer of Priest

Turkish authorities continued to hunt Monday for the lone gunman who killed an Italian priest in the Black Sea port city of Trabzon.

Andrea Santoro, 61, died Sunday after the gunman opened fire as the cleric was praying in the ancient Santa Maria Church that serves Trabzon’s tiny Christian community.

Witnesses described the suspect as cleanshaven and in his late teens. They said he had shouted, “Allahu akbar!” which means “God is great!” in Arabic, before shooting the Roman Catholic priest twice in the back. Police sketches of the suspected assailant depicted a round-faced teen wearing a gray woolen cap with a pompom.

Security was beefed up at churches across Turkey in the wake of the attack.

The motive for the bloodshed was not immediately clear. Turkish leaders appeared divided on whether it may have been linked to caricatures of the prophet Muhammad first published by a Danish newspaper that have triggered violent demonstrations throughout the Muslim world.

The shooting was “deeply regrettable, especially after the recent developments in Denmark,” Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told the private NTV news channel. “Above all, nothing about entering a place of worship to kill a priest is acceptable.”

But Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul dismissed the idea of a connection between the cartoons and Santoro’s slaying. “We really think that it is not linked. It is an individual act,” Gul said.

The Turkish media called the slaying an act of provocation and speculated that the priest may have been a victim of organized crime.

The Roman-born cleric was said to have dedicated much of his time before arriving in Turkey two years ago to combating the trafficking of women from former Soviet republics. According to a report released last week by a United Nations-affiliated organization, Turkey has become a top destination for women from neighboring Ukraine and Moldova who are forced into prostitution.

In Rome, Pope Benedict XVI expressed grief over Santoro’s death. “I share the pain of the entire Church of Rome for the grave loss of such an esteemed and conscientious priest,” he said in a statement.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi sounded a more defiant note, saying his government would not “bow to intolerance.” Berlusconi made his comments as the Rome prosecutor’s office opened its own investigation into the slaying.

The Ankara-based Turkish Human Rights Assn., meanwhile, released a statement charging that the Turkish government had provoked “the culture of violence and nationalism” that was responsible for the cleric’s death.

The group was referring to a long-running campaign of harassment against Christian missionaries that has been condemned by the European Union, which Turkey hopes to join. The missionaries, mostly Protestants, have been accused by Islamist and nationalist media outlets of seeking to convert this predominantly Muslim nation to Christianity.

In Trabzon, Gov. Huseyin Yavuzdemir was quoted by Turkish media as saying Santoro had received death threats stemming from his alleged missionary work but declined police protection.