Unresolved Murders Raise Security Concerns

The failure of the police to detain the perpetrators of many armed attacks in the last few years has ordinary Turks worried about their safety.

Murat Sancak, the CEO of the pro-government Star Media Group, was attacked two weeks ago by unidentified gunmen while in his car in the Hadımköy neighborhood of İstanbul.

The security failure is evident given that the attackers still remain at large despite the fact that they were recorded by security cameras around the incident. Sancak and his bodyguards were unharmed in the attack. Sancak is the brother of Star Media Group owner and pro-government businessman Ethem Sancak.

The Sancak case is not the only incident in which the perpetrators have not yet been detained by the police as Turkey has been in a downward spiral in terms of human rights, democracy and freedoms.

A group of unidentified assailants opened fired on and threw stones at a bus carrying popular football team Fenerbahçe in early April. After winning a game against Rize 5-1, the Fenerbahçe team was headed to Trabzon to take a flight back to İstanbul when their bus was attacked on the Sürmene-Araklı highway.

The driver of the bus was shot by a bullet in the attack, but managed to save the lives of the footballers and managers on the bus by pulling the bus over to the side of the road.

Abdulcelil Öz, the governor of Trabzon, had said the bus was attacked with two gunshots fired from a hunting rifle. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said at the time the attack was a planned one and vowed that the perpetrators would be caught at the earliest.

Two suspects were detained in the Sürmene district of Trabzon province several days after the attack but were later released as their fingerprints did not match those found on the hunting rifle used in the attack.

A bomb placed on the exterior garden wall of the Star daily headquarters in İstanbul in late July was detonated by police bomb experts. The police have yet to detain the perpetrators though it has been a month.

Murat Uzun, a 35-year-old prosecutor, was shot dead in the head in Ovacık district of Tunceli province in September of 2012 while on his way to his apartment. All the 10 suspects in the case were released by the court at the beginning of this year. It was said a Red Notice was issued by the police for the suspects, but no progress has been made so far.

Websites affiliated with the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) said the PKK claimed responsibility for the killing of the prosecutor. Intelligence and security units also discovered details pertaining to the attack on the prosecutor thanks to tapped radio transceiver conversations between terrorists camps based in northern Iraq.

The conversations reveal that the attack was carried out by two terrorists, a man and a woman, belonging to a group operating in Ovacık and led by a terrorist known by the code name Azad. Azad informed another senior terrorist code named Seyithan, the leader of a separate group operating in the same province, about the attack, saying the attack was accomplished without any injuries on the terrorists' part.

After that radio transceiver conversation, Seyithan contacted Fehman Hüseyin, a senior PKK commander who uses the code name Bahoz Erdal, and informed him about the attack, security officials established. They also discovered that the terrorists involved in the deadly attack were the same as those who had earlier kidnapped former Republican People's Party (CHP) Tunceli deputy Hüseyin Aygün.

Another attack whose perpetrator has yet to be identified is the one targeting İlhami Yıldırım, the brother of former Cabinet minister Binali Yıldırım. Unidentified gunmen in February shot at a car in which İlhami, the current head of the İstanbul branch of Kızılay (Turkish Red Crescent), was riding.

İlhami managed to escape unscathed by getting out of the car but his driver was shot in the stomach. The suspects fled the scene after firing more shots at the car. Police have so far not managed to detain anyone in connection to the attack.

A female suicide bomber blew herself up at a police station in İstanbul's historic Sultanahmet district in early January, killing one officer and wounding another.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the bombing came less than a week after the far-left Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C) said it was behind an attempted grenade attack on police near the prime minister's office in İstanbul.

The woman entered the police station and claimed in English that she had lost her purse before blowing herself up, İstanbul Governor Vasip Şahin said following the attack. The attacker's nationality and identity were unknown.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu had said it was not immediately clear whether the suicide bomber had links to any particular group but that he had ordered the “most comprehensive of investigations.” The individuals behind the attack remain unidentified to this day.

Fazlı Mert, İstanbul (Cihan/Today's Zaman)