An 18-year-old man identified as Arda K. carried out a violent attack on Monday evening in Eskişehir, Turkey, injuring five people with a knife and axe. The attacker was reported to have worn a Nazi helmet and a vest bearing a swastika, along with the ‘Black Sun’ emblem, a symbol associated with neo-Nazi and far-right extremist groups.
Arda K. live-streamed the attack, during which he injured five people at a tea garden. He was apprehended while attempting to flee.
According to reports, Arda K. had been playing video games before donning his gear and setting out on the streets. Witnesses described the scene as terrifying, with the attacker indiscriminately striking anyone in his path. A police officer, who was on duty nearby, intervened and managed to apprehend the suspect after a brief chase.
The injured were quickly transported to local hospitals, with two victims reported to be in critical condition. Eskişehir police have confirmed that the suspect is in custody and that the investigation is ongoing. Turkey’s Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç commented on the incident, stating that the investigation was being conducted with the utmost care and wishing the injured a swift recovery.
The attack has sparked significant concern, with some government-aligned social media accounts initially framing the incident as a targeted assault on mosque-goers. However, details from a poorly written “manifesto” uploaded by the attacker to an online archive revealed that he had chosen his victims based on their perceived inability to fight back, including elderly individuals. The manifesto listed groups such as leftists, women, refugees, Kurds, LGBTQI individuals and even animals as his targets.
Further investigation revealed that Arda K. had previously written blog posts targeting migrants and LGBTQI people. The combination of his Nazi-themed attire and hate-filled writings underscores the ideological motivations behind the attack.
Journalist Bahadır Özgür criticised attempts to downplay the attack, stating, “This should not be dismissed as just a ‘kid influenced by video games’. He explicitly wrote who he wanted to kill: leftists, women, refugees, Kurds, LGBTQI people, dogs, cats. These are the enemies that many politicians here speak about every day!”
A social media user, Aylakokur, added, “This is a high-level sociopath. His first target was the Communist Party of Turkey office, but he chose this path thinking the elderly couldn’t escape,” sharing a link to the alleged manifesto.
