ROME, Italy — Pope Francis has reached out to the victims of a terrorist attack that killed six people in Istanbul on Sunday, wounding 80 more.
In a telegram Tuesday, the pontiff said he was “deeply saddened” to learn of the attack, while also sending “condolences to the families and friends of those who have died.”
The pope also assured the injured and those who mourn their loved ones of his “spiritual closeness,” praying that “no act of violence will discourage the efforts of the people of Türkiye to build a society based on the values of fraternity, justice, and peace.”
The telegram, signed by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin at the behest of Pope Francis, was addressed to Archbishop Marek Solczyński, the apostolic nuncio in Turkey.
Turkey’s Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, center, visits the scene of Sunday’s explosion on Istanbul’s popular pedestrian Istiklal Avenue in Istanbul, Monday, Nov. 14, 2022. Turkey’s interior minister says police have detained a suspect who is believed to have planted the bomb that exploded on a bustling pedestrian avenue in Istanbul. He said Monday that initial findings indicate that Kurdish militants were responsible for the attack. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Turkey’s Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said in a statement Monday that the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) was responsible for the attack and that police had arrested the “person who planted the bomb,” a Syrian woman allegedly working for the PKK.
Forensic experts collect a dead body after an explosion on Istanbul’s popular pedestrian Istiklal Avenue Sunday, Istanbul, Sunday, November 13, 2022. (Ismail Coskun/IHA via AP)
Turkish authorities claimed the woman has confessed to carrying out the attack on behalf of the Kurdish militants, but a PKK spokesman denied any role in the bombing.
“There is no relationship between the PKK and yesterday’s explosion in Istanbul,” the spokesman said on Monday.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called the bombing a “treacherous attack” and pledged to bring those responsible to justice.
Pope Francis has an uneasy relationship with Turkey, especially since 2015, when he described the Turkish massacre of 1.5 million Armenians as “the first genocide of the twentieth century.”
Following his comment, the Turkish government recalled its ambassador to the Holy See and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the Pope was fueling “hatred and animosity” by spreading “unfounded allegations.”
Nonetheless, two years ago President Erdoğan invited Pope Francis to visit Hagia Sophia, the 6th-century Christian basilica that had been functioning as a museum since 1934, before its repurposing as a full-time mosque in July of 2020.
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