According to some newspapers, posters similar to those that sprung up like mushrooms after the Hrant Dink murder and ended with the words, "We Are All Armenians," appeared equally swiftly after the Malatya massacre. Distributed with unbelievable speed, the "We Are All Christians" posters were in Taksim Square on Thursday, 19 April 2007.

His Beatitude the Patriarch said that he read in the newspapers that the group that printed and incredibly swiftly passed out the "We Are All Christians" posters was the same as the one that prepared and distributed the "We Are All Armenians" posters after the Hrant Dink assassination. "As soon as I saw the 'We Are All Armenians" posters unfurled after the Hrant Dink murder, the first thing that came to my mind was, 'Oh no!' As a matter of fact, the people who organized it were nowhere to be seen, again leaving the Armenian community standing alone, so that the Armenians of Turkey became a target for reaction from ultra-nationalists, but through a slogan that they themselves did not use. The 'We Are All Christians' posters that have now followed the Malatya savagery were not at all for the good.

All Christian citizens in the country have unnecessarily been made the objects of attack. Now is the time above all to pray for the repose and peace of the souls of our fellow citizens who have died. The most meaningful and the most Christian response has been made by Suzanna Geske, the mourning wife of the slain German citizen Tilmar Geske, when she forgave those who had deliberately committed the murder, for 'They know not what they have done.'"

As for the incident with Ugur Yuksel, who had his throat cut in the bloody attack in Malatya, died in the hospital, and was then buried according to Islamic customs in the village of Mansuraga in Elazig, His Beatitude the Patriarch offered the following comment. "If proper attention had been paid to the beliefs chosen by the murder victim Ugur Yuksel, then of course it would have been better, but he was dead, and of course his family was in charge of his funeral. They made the decision to bury him in accordance with Islamic traditions, and one must respect this."

His Beatitude the Patriarch made the following statement concerning reactions in some newspapers to "Christian mission," which he found excessive.

"It is difficult to understand the reasons for this lack of self-confidence, which extends as far as the National Security Council. Radio and television in our country, where the majority of citizens are Muslims, are already in the service of Islam, which is normal. The beliefs of Christian citizens are alive in the preaching in the churches and in life in the home. Instead of feeling inadequate in regard to other religions in our country, which we say is secular, we must show tolerance. The numbers who have converted from Islam to Christianity are not as many as have been claimed, and most of them are already members of families who had Christian members in the past."