RUSSIA Fr. Nikolaj, the Orthodox priest who helped everyone beheaded in Dagestan

In the coordinated Islamist assaults of unprecedented violence that hit two churches and the synagogue in Derbent and Makhachkala, in the North Caucasus, last night, at least 20 people died. The 66-year-old clergyman murdered in church before parishioners on the day of Pentecost. Among the killed attackers were the children of the head of the Sergokalinsk province, detained by the FSB services.

Makhachkala () – In Dagestan, one of the most tormented republics of the Russian North Caucasus, on the night of Sunday, June 23, there were simultaneous attacks of unprecedented violence in two cities, in Derbent and the capital Makhachkala, against buildings religious buildings, two Orthodox churches and a synagogue. The tragic toll speaks of around twenty dead, including 15 police officers, and the parish priest of the Church of the Protection of the Mother of God in Derbent, protoierej Nikolaj Kotelnikov, 66 years old and serving this community for 40 years, beheaded by terrorists in front of his parishioners on the day of Pentecost. The janitor of the other Orthodox church also lost his life in the attack.

The regional president, Sergej Melnikov, declared this morning that the “anti-terrorist operation has concluded”, with six assailants killed, and that more accomplices and participants are being sought, but that Kto’s “special anti-terrorist control” regime remains in force. The unknown assailants, believed to be linked in some way to Isis, opened fire with automatic weapons on both the churches and the synagogue, where it was immediately set on fire shouting “Allah is great!” Another group of terrorists also attacked a traffic police post, and in the village of Sertokala, near Derbent, another shooting occurred at a police car.

According to information released by the Tass news agency, two of the assailants were recognized as the sons Osman and Adil of the head of the Sergokalinsk province, Magomed Omarov, and according to Interfax, a nephew of the official also participated. The three young men died in clashes with the police, and Omarov himself is detained and is being interrogated by the FSB services.

June 24, 25 and 26 were declared days of mourning for the victims of the attacks in Makhachkala and Derbent. Journalist Vladimir Sevrinovsky published on his Facebook page a memory of Father Nikolaj, who “belonged to a family of Cossacks from the Sunženskye district, a term applied in Soviet times to a part of the Gorskye population of the North Caucasus, and was born in a Stanitsa, a Cossack detachment from Chechnya. He helped everyone to the best of his ability, without ever trying to deceive people: he told the Muslims that he would also help them, although he could not baptize them, and that if they wanted to change their religion, religion they had to go “somewhere else.”

The Derbent church had already been subject to some acts of violence and intimidation by local radical Islamists, but there had been no incidents for a long time. Father Nikolaj used to visit the Derbent mosque and synagogue from time to time, to maintain good relations between the communities of different confessions. Now the synagogue has been burned down. The spokesman for the Moscow Patriarchate, Vladimir Legojda, commented that “it is not enough to condemn such barbaric and despicable acts, society and the State must do everything possible to definitively rule out the possibility of these outbreaks of terrorism, whatever the reasons. drive people to commit these acts. He added that “attacking the servants of worship and the sacred buildings of any religion cannot be justified in any way, they are spaces where peace must reign and people can approach God in silence and inner and outer calm, without fear of receiving offenses.” or violence from nowhere”.

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow celebrated a funeral litany for the soul of Father Nikolai Kotelnikov, and the priests of the Orthodox eparchy of Makhachkala made themselves available to the family of the murdered priest and all those who were victims of the attack.