Suicide bomber attacks Christian villages in Turkey

Five people were killed after a suicide bomber attacked Christian villages in Turkey on Wednesday, May 25.

According to Christian Today, a suicide bomber detonated the explosion at a checkpoint between Syriac Orthodox villages in southeastern Turkey and no more than 100 meters from St. Mary church in Hah, Tur Abdin.

The church, known as Idto d'Yoldath- Kurds Aloho, its Turkish name, is reported to be the oldest existing church in the world and was built in memory of Jesus' mother. The site is believed to be the same place that the three Wise Men passed by as they traveled to visit the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. Tur Abdin is then considered to be equally important as Jerusalem and the center of Syriac Orthodox Christianity.

"Hah is my heart and soul... it is one of the most important places for our people in the world," Nuri Kino, an investigative journalist and founder of the advocacy group A Demand for Action, told Christian Today.

He said the church has seen many wars and genocide but remained unscathed until Wednesday's attack when all of the church's windows were destroyed. Kino called for peace believing that no more blood should be shed no matter if they are of Turks, Kurds, or Assyrian/Syriac.

"The inhabitants in our villages are vulnerable and we are pleading to the world to stop them from being hurt. Yesterday was a day of total shock for us, we are losing our people in Iraq and Syria and now this in Turkey," Kino appealed. "We are tired of tears, tired of being hurt in country after country. The people of Tur Abdin stand not alone."

In a video report by CNN, Turkey is described to have seen a year of turmoil as the Turkish government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan simultaneously fights against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS).