Assailant 'repentant' after killing seven members of Kurdish family

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

Mehmet Altun, who killed seven members of a Kurdish family in Konya on July 30, said in his testimony at the prosecutor's office that he was "repentant" after the massacre.

Previously, the assailant told the police that he went to the Dedeoğulları family's house to convince them to withdraw their complaints against his relatives, who were arrested after an attack against the Kurdish family on May 12. His statement at the prosecutor's office indicates that he went to the family's house to kill them.

Some 60 people had attacked the family in the yard of their house in what they called a racist assault. The attackers had described themselves as "Grey Wolves," an ultranationalist group, according to statements by the now-deceased family members.

A spare magazine and gasoline

Altun told prosecutors that he had a weapon and a spare magazine and got 30 liters of gasoline, which he used to set fire to the house after the massacre.

He bought the gasoline to set fire to the house "if anything happens" so that the house's security camera footage would be destroyed, he said.

While Altun said he didn't intend to kill the people, autopsy reports showed that there were 21 bullets in the bodies of seven people. Six people were shot in the head and one was shot in the neck.

Altun had told the police that he hadn't remembered setting fire to the house. However, in his statement at the prosecutor's office, he said, "When I set fire to the house, I knew that the woman I shot last was inside the house. I wasn't sure whether she was alive or dead. I got into the house and started the fire from one point. I threw the fuel can inside the house."

"There are instigators"

The assailant's spouse, Zehra Altun, who is under arrest as part of the investigation, said in her testimony that her spouse did not have a problem with the Dedeoğulları family. "When Ayşe Keleş [a relative of Mehmet Altun who was arrested after the May 12 attack] was released from prison, I started to work in the field to help her. While I was working, her spouse Lütfi Keleş's brother Veli Keleş came. They took Ayşe away from me and they started talking secretly.

"Veli left after they talked for an hour. Ayşe came to me and said to me that 'Where are your siblings, where is Mehmet Altun? Tell them to help you.' I told Ayşe that 'My spouse is unemployed ... he should work. Ayşe told me that 'I can't say anything to him, he has three children.

"When I think about all of these, I can't understand why my husband, who didn't have any problem with the Dedeoğulları, committed this incident.

"Who gave my spouse that bag [that included a weapon] and sent him there. And I think about how he could meet all of your needs, how he could rent the cars he used. I think there might have been people who guided my spouse and instigated the incident. But there is no one I am suspicious of."

Previously, the Dedeoğulları family's attorney raised the question that how the assailant, an unemployed man, was able to acquire a weapon worth about 20,000 lira (~2,300 USD) and rent a car to carry out the assault.

CLICK - Konya massacre: The assailant might have been acting on behalf of other people, says attorney

What happened?

An armed assailant raided the house of the Dedeoğulları family in the Hasanköy Neighborhood in Konya's Meram district in the evening hours on July 30. He shot seven family members dead, set the house on fire and ran away.

Several police and paramedic teams were dispatched to the scene of the incident upon reports. The dead bodies of Yaşar Dedeoğulları, Barış Dedeoğulları, Serpil Dedeoğulları, Serap Dedeoğulları, İpek Dedeoğulları, Metin Dedeoğulları and Sibel Dedeoğulları were found at home which was set on fire before leaving.

Living in the same neighborhood for 24 years, the Dedeoğulları family was targeted in an attack by a group of nearly 60 people on May 12. The family members said after the attack that they were told "We are [ultranationalist] idealists, we will not let you live here." The group also severely wounded the seven-member family, including four women. Of the seven people arrested after the attack, five were released. (RT/VK)