Turkish media and gov’t played down attack on Rev. Franchini in Izmir as an isolated incident. A long list of such attacks, against Franchini and others, shows that a widespread campaign against Christians is underway in Turkey.
http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=2517
By Mavi Zambak
Turkey’s press has expressed regrets for the latest incident involving an attack against a http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=357 clergyman. Fr Adriano Franchini, an Italian-born 65-year-old Capuchin who has been in Turkey for 27 years, was in fact stabbed to the stomach but is now out of danger. Turkish newspapers have however failed so far to take notice of the ongoing defamation campaign against Catholics in the country.
Ramazan Bay, the 19-year-old man who carried out the attack, surrendered to police a few hours after the stabbing. He had fled after he carried out his attack in a church in Barakli in Izmir right after mass and in front several witnesses. He was quickly identified as a young Turkish man who had recently expressed a desire to convert to Christianity and complained about the long procedure the Church in Turkey required for conversion.In fact the young man told police that he took the decision to stab the priest after searching the internet for information on Christian activities and watching the last episode of a made-for-TV movie titled The Valley of the Wolves, which focuses on alleged Christian propaganda and proselytising.
http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?id=13079