“He was very loved by the congregation. He was killed in vain. We are very sad,” he said.
Çağın Cihan, the nephew of the deceased, told the same Turkish news outlet: “He was my uncle. … He was a simple, innocent person and definitely an innocent victim. He was retired with a slight mental disability.”
“He had been going to church on Sundays for the last two months,” he said.
Tuncer Murat Cihan was laid to rest in a funeral on Jan. 29 held at a cemevi, an Alevi place of worship. The Alevis are Turkey’s largest religious minority. They are a sect of Shia Islam with unique Anatolian folk practices and do not perform ablution before prayers or fast for Ramadan.
According to the Turkish government, 99% of the population is Muslim, including Alevis. There are about 25,000 Roman Catholics living in Turkey, including migrants from Africa and the Philippines, according to a 2022 report by the U.S. State Department.
Catholic Bishop Massimiliano Palinuro, the apostolic vicar of Istanbul, attended Cihan’s funeral.