Attacks in France and Christian persecution
Last week in France there was a series of attacks on Christians. This is a stark reminder to us in the west of the daily persecution faced by our Christian brothers and sisters in other parts of the world.
By Conn McNally
A lit candle in Paris during the Night of Witness 2019. (Credit: Marc-Antoine Mouterde)
Last week was a dark week for France. It was an unspeakable tragedy to see in France, the eldest daughter of the Church, Catholics being killed for their faith. Last Thursday at the Notre-Dame Basilica in Nice three Catholics were murdered by a Tunisian Islamist terrorist because of their faith. The extremist was shot by the police and is currently being treated in hospital while under arrest. That same day a bomb disposal unit carried out a controlled explosion in Nice. If this alone was not enough, on Saturday a Greek Orthodox priest was shot and seriously injured in Lyon outside his church. The French police have not given further details on the incident and a personal dispute is reported as being investigate as a possible the motive, but under the current circumstances it is more than reasonable to suspect this attack was also motivated by anti-Christian hatred.
Pray for Nice. (Credit: Aid to the Church in Need)
On Sunday, also in Lyon, the memorial to 1.5 million Armenian Christians murdered by the Turkish government a hundred years ago was vandalised. The vandals wrote “RTE”, the initials of the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, on the memorial. If this was not enough, Turkish and Azerbaijani nationalists staged a large demonstration in Vienne France last week and shouted anti-Armenian slogans. The specific targeting of Armenian Christians is extremely disturbing given the fact the Turkish government still refuses to recognise that the Armenian Genocide happened. The French government has moved to ban the Turkish nationalist movement, the Grey Wolves, which was involved in both incidents targeting the Armenians.
Armenian Genocide memorial in Yerevan Armenia. (Credit: Aid to the Church in Need)
Turkish Islamist extremists were active outside of France. A crowd of 30 to 50 Turkish youths stormed a church in Vienna Austria shouting Islamist slogans and attacking the pews and confessionals. Thankfully, no one was injured. This all followed inflammatory statements made by the Turkish President Erdoğan. Theses statements made by the Turkish president make the condemnation of the attack in Nice by Turkish foreign minister ring hollow. Such overt anti-Christian attacks by Islamists in the heart of Europe is shocking. The actions of Turkey are particularly worrying and remind us of the anti-Christian actions taken by the Turkish government in other parts of the world.
One of the most iconic monuments of Greek Christianity, the Hagia Sophia, was recently converted into a mosque by the Turkish government. (Credit: Aid to the Church in Need)
A 9th century mosaic of the Virgin and Child in the Hagia Sophia. (Credit: Aid to the Church in Need)
Turkish troops and Turkish backed militias in northern Syria have targeted Christian ethnic groups such as the Armenians and Assyrians. The Assyrians, like the Armenians, were subjected to a genocide by the Turkish government a hundred years ago. The Turkish government is also giving significant support to Azerbaijan in fighting Armenia itself. This small Christian nation in the south Caucasus has endured much in its history. Possible apart from Ethiopia, Armenia is the oldest Christian nation in the world. It is important not only for western nations such as the USA but also for Russia to prove they are genuine friends of persecuted Christians and to stand beside Armenia in her hour of need.
Closer to home, the Turkish government is also trying to intimidate another Christian people subjected to harassment by Turkish authorities in the past, the Greeks and Cypriots. There is a long history of the Turkish state persecuting Greek Christians. A century ago, the Greeks of Anatolia were subjected to a genocide carried out by Turkish troops. In the 1950s, the remaining Greeks in Istanbul were targeted in a pogrom. In the 1970s Turkey invaded Cyprus, illegal occupied two fifths of the island and made hundreds of thousands of Cypriots homeless refugees. In the last few months the Turkish government has stated converting historic Greek churches into mosques. The most famous example of this is the Hagia Sophia. Recently the Turkish government has claimed ownership of islands and territorial waters which belong to the Hellenic and Cypriot Republics. This issue has not yet come to blows but it is vital that other EU countries stand beside Greece and Cyprus in standing up to Turkish intimidation. It is with all this in mind that we should reflect on the attacks in France. We can see a worrying trend of actions taken by the Turkish government against Christians. This is something we will need to pay close attention to in the future. This is only a fraction of the anti-Christian persecution taking place around the world and shows how important the work of Aid to the Church in Need is and also the important of praying to Our Lady to intercede on the behalf of the Persecuted Church.