Turkey condemns attack near German synagogue

By Zehra Nur Duz

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey has condemned a shooting rampage that killed two people on Wednesday near a synagogue in eastern Germany.

“We strongly condemn the armed attack in front of a synagogue in the eastern German city of Halle,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

The statement stressed that it is regrettable that this anti-Semitic attack against the Jewish community took place during Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for the Jews.

“We are against all extreme movements such as anti-Semitism, hostility towards Islam, Christians and xenophobia,” the statement said.

Highlighting that these movements threaten all humanity, it urged the world to fight together against them.

Extending condolences to the German people and the Jewish community, it said: “We hope that the attackers who inflicted a deep wound in the conscience of the world’s public opinion will be brought to justice as soon as possible.”

A neo-Nazi, who killed two people in eastern Germany, originally planned to storm a mosque, according to a manifesto apparently written by him and posted online.

Stephan Balliet, 27, tried to enter a synagogue in the eastern German city of Halle apparently to commit a mass shooting, but was blocked by tight security. He later killed a woman on the street as well as a man in a nearby Turkish doner restaurant.

“I originally planned to storm a mosque or an antifa ‘culture’ center, which are way less defended,” he said in the manifesto posted online on the internet.

Police are investigating the authenticity of the manifesto, which includes detailed notes on the targeted synagogue and a nearby Jewish cemetery as well as photos of various guns and homemade explosives he planned to use in the attacks.