A lawyer representing the family of the victims killed in a massacre in Turkey’s province of Konya on 30 July, presented new findings, and said the evidence showed that the massacre wasn’t merely an individual action of revenge. “They very clearly show that this action was carried out with organisation and instigation by others,” he said.
Speaking to Mezopotamya News Agency, lawyer Atilla Kart indicated that the person who is accused for killing seven individuals of the Kurdish Dedeoğulları family, has been revealed to have stayed in expensive hotels prior to the incident although he didn’t have the required financial means.
Kart also stated that the response by state officials right from the first attack against the family on 12 May was an indication of neglect that was followed by an ineffective investigation and an equally ineffective protection of family members.
He began by emphasising the delay in the arrival of the police on the night of the first incident when the Dedeoğulları family was attacked in their own backyard by a group with sticks and stones.
The police arrive two hours after the first call for help
“You have the cries of Serpil on the transcripts of audio files, beginning at 10.03PM,” Kart said.
“You see that she’s been crying, ‘Help, they’re killing us, they’re hitting us on our heads with sticks.’ Serpil cries 13 or 14 times within 22 minutes. She calls the police, and she calls the emergency services. Both the police and the emergency services arrive at the scene of incident, according to official documents, after midnight, meaning they arrive two hours later. The scene is very close to the city centre. It’s only five kilometres away from the centre.”
Kart indicated that the father, Yaşar Dedeoğulları, called the Presidency’s Communication Centre (CİMER) two days later for help, and Serpil Dedeoğulları, another family member, directly called the Turkish ministry of the interior. She said in her call, ‘We’re in Meram, we’re terrified, they’re attacking us. They’re attacking us because we’re Kurds.’
Kart noted that the Dedeoğulları family was not assigned protection later although they made an appeal.
He then went on to say that Mehmet Altun, the man accused of the massacre, has been revealed to have began traveling and staying in expensive hotels a short time after the first incident.
‘Moral preparation’ at luxurious hotels
“Mehmet Altun is an unemployed person, someone without a profession,” he said.
“He had received loans from two banks within the last year, amounting to 100-120 thousand liras. He could only repay only one tenth of that (…) We see that he started staying in luxurious hotels in İzmir’s Gaziemir district, İstanbul, Eskişehir and Bursa, beginning from the 24th of May. And he always payed these hotels in cash. He deliberately didn’t use credit cards as a precaution for not leaving trace. We have information that he flew from Konya to İstanbul and from İstanbul back. In the period between the 24 May and 30 July, within a period of 65 days, Mehmet Altun stayed for a total of 16-17 nights in luxurious hotels, and he constantly traveled, according to the information we currently have (…) This shows that they actually had Mehmet Altun prepared; a moral preparation.”
Kart also noted the way Altun carried out the massacre in a calculated and cold-blooded way showed that he had recieved training.
He said it was an indication of this training that he had waited for the return of family member Barış before he began carrying out the massacre, and that he’s spoken to some individuals in the region within 10 minutes before Barış came back.
He added that there was also information that an individual named Selmin Kuruş visited the hotel room Altun was staying in İzmir on 25 June 2021, and that they left the hotel together the next day.
Altun was also visited by a Doğan Söylemez in the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Istanbul’s Ataköy neighbourhood on 9 July.
