ISTANBUL, Oct 11 (AFP) - One of two Istanbul synagogues hit last year by suicide bombers allegedly linked to Al-Qaeda reopened Monday with a service attended by politicians, diplomats and representatives of different faiths.
On November 15 last year car bombs exploded outside the Neve Shalom and Beth Israel synagogues in Istanbul, killing 29 people, including the two bombers, and injuring hundreds.
Five days laters two British targets were hit, a consulate and a bank, and 32 people, including the bombers, died with hundreds hurt.
A court is trying 69 people in connection with the attacks, which have been linked to Al-Qaeda.
The Al-Qaeda network financed the attacks, one of the defendants has said.
Adnan Ersoz, who faces a possible term of life in prison without parole, said money was brought to Turkey by an unidentified "Syrian militant... 50,000 dollars (about 41,000 euros) of it via Europe and the other 100,000 dollars via Iran."
"We cannot speak of an Al-Qaeda branch in Turkey, but there were ties of mutual assistance between the group that committed the bombings and Al-Qaeda, and the money came from Al-Qaeda," Ersoz said.
Jews have lived in Istanbul for centuries though numbers have fallen in recent decades to about 35,000.
The Neve Shalom synagogue is the city's biggest and was the target of an attack in 1986 which killed 22.