Felicity Party Chair Karamollaoğlu meets Şenyaşar family

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Felicity Party (SP) Chair Temel Karamollaoğlu visited the Şenyaşar family on the 265th day of their justice watch yesterday (November 28).

Emine Şenyaşar lost her spouse and two sons in an attack by the security guards and relatives of ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) MP İbrahim Halil Yıldız in Urfa. She and her son Ferit Şenyaşar, who survived the attack, have been seeking justice since then.

Arriving in Turkey's southeastern province of Urfa for the 6th Provincial Congress of his party, Temel Karamollaoğlu received information from Ferit Şenyaşar about the family's legal struggle.

As reported by Mezopotamya Agency (MA), Ferit Şenyaşar said that they visited the SP Central Office in Ankara last year, underlining that no progress has been made in the legal process since then.

Referring to former Minister of Food, Agriculture and Livestock Ahmet Eşref Fakıbaba from the ruling AKP, Şenyaşar said:

"Minister Fakıbaba said our family was innocent. He said we did not have links with 'terrorism'. As there is the President behind the MP who carried out the massacre, prosecutors evade us. 9 prosecutors have changed in the file. When we go to the courthouse, even the public prosecutor evades us. They have nothing to give us legally. We ask for your help."

Ferit Şenyaşar also recalled that his mother Emine Şenyaşar was put on trial for "insulting" AKP MP İbrahim Halil Yıldız: "There is no court case about the ones who carried out the massacre, but there is a case about my mother and they want to penalize her at the highest limit."

In response, Temel Karamollaoğlu briefly stated, "We can only voice what happened from the places where we are. We cannot go beyond it. We know the incident. May God help you. God willing, justice will be served one day. God willing, justice will be done one day."

Emphasizing that she does not have the strength to withstand the injustice anymore, mother Emine Şenyaşar said, "They destroyed my family; my son has been arrested. Help us."

What happened?

During the election campaign of ruling AKP Urfa MP İbrahim Halil Yıldız in Suruç, Urfa on June 14, 2018, an attack turned into an armed conflict, which claimed the lives of Yıldız's brother Mehmet Şah Yıldız, shop owner Hacı Esvet Şenyaşar and his sons Adil and Celal Şenyaşar.

Having lost his father and two brothers and been wounded himself in the incident, Fadıl Şenyaşar was discharged from hospital and detained on June 17. He was then arrested and sent to prison.

Demanding justice for two sons, husband and her arrested son, Emine Şenyaşar and her son Ferit Şenyaşar, who survived the attack, have been keeping a "justice watch" in front of the courthouse.

There has been a confidentiality order on the file of the investigation into the attack for 3 years, 3 months. The second appeal of the Şenyaşar family against the "confidentiality" order on the investigation into the second attack at the Suruç Public Hospital was rejected on April 21, 2021.

The Constitutional Court, to which the family appealed, has not yet given its decision. One of the demands raised by the family on their justice watch is the removal of this "confidentiality" order. (RT/SD)