An attack using Molotov cocktails took place yesterday evening against the Justice and Development Party (AKP) building in the Hani district of Diyarbakır (Amed) in Turkey. While no one was killed or injured in the attack, which took place around 21:00, the moments of the attack were recorded by security cameras.
In the footage, an attacker is seen approaching the front of the AKP district building. Moments later, after throwing a Molotov cocktail, the attacker is seen quickly walking away. After investigating the footage, the attackers Mahmut Evren and Şemdin Barin were reportedly identified and detained by the police.
Some AKP members have linked the attack to the HDP attack
The AKP’s Diyarbakır Province Chairperson Şerif Aydın, in his statements to the media about the attack, claimed that the attack was “connected” to the attack on the HDP’s İzmir Provincial Organisation building in which Deniz Poyraz was murdered.
Aydın said, “There was an attempted attack on the building of our AKP Hani District branch organisation in Diyarbakır tonight, similar to the brutal attack on the İzmir HDP Provincial building. This attack, where our brothers were inside and were able to escape unharmed by chance, is just like the attack that took place yesterday. As the AK Party Diyarbakır Provincial Presidency, we condemn it.”
Similarly, many officials of the AKP, from AKP spokesperson Ömer Çelik to AKP Deputy Chairman Numan Kurtulmuş and Parliamentary Speaker Mustafa Şentop, all described the attack as a ‘provocation’ and spoke out against it.
However, it has reportedly been revealed that the attacker was a relative of the party executive. Şemdin Barin, one of the two people detained in connection with the attack, is reportedly the nephew of Ali Barin, who is still in the administration of the AKP District Organisation, MA reports. The nephew of the district manager is now reportedly in police custody as the perpetrator of the attack on the party.
This situation has led some to question whether the attack, which the AKP administrators tried to link with the attack on the HDP, was purposely organised. An event along these suggested lines had also taken place in December 2020. An armed fight had broken out in the street between two hostile families from the AKP. In the attack, in which three people were injured, gunfire was heard in the AKP district building, as a consequence of a shotgun being fired. Three people were detained by the police after that attack. It has been reportedly revealed that one of those detained people is the nephew of the AKP district manager Zeki Uçak.
