Grey Wolves leader assassination: Arrests rise to 18 as court remands lawyer

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A penal judgeship of peace has arrested lawyer Serdar Öktem, who was among the three people detained on Wednesday (January 25) in relation to the killing of an ex-Grey Wolves leader.

The other two detainees, Tolgahan Demirbaş and Emre Yüksel, were previously remanded in custody. The number of suspects behind bars reached 18 with the latest arrests.

Öktem reportedly previously acted as an attorney for Doğukan Çep, another suspect under arrest, and a Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) official.

Sinan Ateş, an academic and a former leader of the Grey Wolves, an ultranationalist group affiliated with the MHP, was killed on December 30 after being shot by an assailant on a motorcycle in Çankaya, Ankara.

As the investigation progressed, it was found that two special operations police officers had driven Eray Özyağcı, the assailant, from İstanbul to Ankara before the killing. Both officers were arrested.

What happened?

Ateş and his friend Selman Bozkurt were leaving an apartment building in Ankara where Ateş's office is located when two men on motorcycles fired shots at them.

Ateş was seriously injured by a bullet to the head, while Bozkurt was wounded in the shoulder. Transported to a hospital, Ateş was pronounced dead after arrival.

Ateş became the leader of the Grey Wolves in 2019. In the period when İYİ (Good) Party, a splinter movement from the MHP, was founded, Ateş came out in favor of MHP leadership and criticized those leaving MHP in order to join the İYİ Party.

On April 2, 2020, Ateş resigned from the presidency of the Grey Wolves, following the instruction of MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli according to reports, and started to work in the Hacettepe University History department as an academician.

Thousands attended the funeral in Bursa, Great Mosque on Saturday (December 31), including Bursa Mayor Alinur Aktaş, İYİ Party group deputy chairperson Müsavat Dervişoğlu, İYİ Party Bursa chairperson Selçuk Türkoğlu, and Justice and Development Party (AKP) MP Refik Özen.

MHP did not express condolences, and no officials from the party attended the funeral.

Condemning the act of violence, the main opposition leader Kılıçdaroğlu also slammed Devlet Bahçeli, leader of MHP, who kept silent on the killing.

The Grey Wolves in Mersin, southern Türkiye, hung a banner on Monday (Jan. 23) threatening Kılıçdaroğlu ahead of his scheduled visit to the city on January 27.

The banner, later removed by the police, included a quote from MHP leader Bahçeli, which said, "Come here if you have a lot of bottles. Try taking one of my children and we'll see how brave you are." (RT/VK)