ISTANBUL (Ermenihaber, Normarara) – Istanbul police have detained a man for attempting to burn the entrance door of the Armenian Sourp Asdvadzadzin Church in the Bakırköy district.
The incident had taken place on May 8. The fire was quickly extinguished and the police initiated an investigation into the incident. The police found out the identity of the suspect from the security cameras and detained him by that same evening. “I burned it because they brought the coronavirus [onto Turkey],” the man was quoted by local sources as saying in his testimony to the police. The individual known by the initials M.K. is said to suffer from mental problems.
Turkey’s Armenian Patriarchate released a statement regarding the issue, saying Istanbul’s deputy chief of police has contacted them and expressed his sadness regarding this incident. “He also said that the suspect would be apprehended in the shortest time possible,” the statement said.
The walls of the same church had been defiled by graffiti in February 2019.
