Seeking justice for five years over the loss of three family members by gunmen related to an MP from Turkey’s ruling party, Ferit Şenyaşar applied to the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) to become a parliamentary candidate in the 14 May general elections.
Şenyaşar applied for candidacy to the party’s Şanlıurfa (Riha) provincial branch on Wednesday after the HDP offered to nominate him.
If elected, Şenyaşar will continue his search for justice as a member of parliament. “I will be the voice of everyone who has been subjected to injustice and lawlessness in this country,” he said.
Bodyguards and relatives of an MP from Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) attacked Şenyaşar family members, injuring five, at their shop premises in the Suruç (Pirsûs) district of Şanlıurfa on 14 June 2018.
Ferit’s father, Hacı Esvet, and his two brothers, Adil and Celal, were murdered in hospital while receiving treatment after the initial attack. According to Ferit, bullets from 17 different guns were retrieved from the body of one of the brothers.
The case is divided into two parts, a file covering the attacks at the family’s shop, and a separate file covering the fatal attack at the hospital, known as the “hospital massacre”.
No one was detained in relation to the incident until April 2022, and the hospital’s security camera recordings were not released, nor were the defendants identified, according to the Şenyaşar family’s lawyer. The first hearing of the case began this year, on 17 January, and the hospital and shop files were combined in February.
The surviving family, Ferit and his mother Emine, are still fighting for justice, campaigning, and demanding the release of the relevant CCTV videos. The pair have held a daily vigil in front of the Şanlıurfa Courthouse since March 2021, which Ferit confirmed he will continue if he stands as a HDP MP.
A main suspect in the case, wanted but never arrested, İbrahim Yıldız, died during surgery last week in a private hospital in the southern province of Mersin. It was recently revealed that the defendant married the daughter of the sister of İbrahim Halil Yıldız, the AKP MP in question, three years ago and had a child, despite the ongoing arrest warrant on his name.
