Attackers at Funeral of Arrested HDP MP’s Mother Hatun Tuğluk Released in First Hearing

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The three arrested suspects who carried out an attack on the funeral ceremony of arrested Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Deputy Co-Chair Aysel Tuğluk's mother Hatun Tuğluk shouting "We will not let you bury any Armenians here" were released in the first hearing on October 6.

The funeral ceremony of Hatun Tuğluk was supposed to be held on September 13. HDP MP Aysel Tuğluk who had been arrested on the charges of "managing an armed terrorist organization" and "being a member of an armed terrorist organization" in December and had been behind bars since then, had a special permission to attend her mother's funeral.

After the attack carried out by a racist group who assaulted the people at the ceremony verbally shouting: "Bodies of martyrs lie here. We won't allow any terrorist be buried here. This is no Armenian cemetery. We won't let Kurds, Alewis, Armenians be buried here. If you do so, we will take them out and tear them apart", Tuğluk's body was exhumed, taken back to the djemevi and was later laid to rest in Dersim with a funeral ceremony on September 14.

The first hearing in the trial of three suspects attacking the funeral ceremony was held on Friday, October 6, before Gölbaşı 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance.

Suspect Alp with photograph taken with Interior Minister Soylu

In the following days, it came out that one of the suspects, Murat Alp had shared a photograph on the social media, which he had taken with Minister of Interior Süleyman Soylu while he was in detention.

Photographs of Murat Alp taken with the President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's son Bilal Erdoğan, Minister of Labor and Social Security Jülide Sarıeroğlu and Justice and Development Party (AKP) Ankara MP Ahmet Gündoğdu appeared on the social media as well.
During the hearing, Alp who wanted to make a statement about the photograph, was warned by his lawyer and drew his statement back.

"We asked politely not to bury that body there"

Making his statement of defence, suspect Alp said "Brother Necat [another suspect] asked 'Who is the host of this funeral?' and asked politely not to bury the body there. Alp stated that later, a tall man in a suit who was a relative of the deceased approached them, threatened and sweared at them".

Noting that he regretted the incident, Alp said "We did this because we were bored of martyr funerals".

Alp also stated that according to the law, someone who had removed her/his residence address to this district only a short time ago, was not allowed to be buried in that cemetery.

Upon being asked, how he knew that the residence address of the deceased had been newly changed, Alp responded "I don't want to answer".

Regarding his photograph with Minister of Interior Soylu taken while he was in detention, Alp said "I don't want to answer these questions" as well.

Suspect Özdemir: "This is not Armenian lands, this is Turkish lands"

The other suspect Cemih Özdemir in his deposition said:

"They told us that they were burying terrorists here. I knew 80% of the people in the crowd. And we shouted 'Martrys are immortal, our country is indivisible. This is not Armenian lands, this is Turkish lands'". Özdemir also said that he regretted his actions.

Suspect Şimşek: "Police made no warning"

Other suspect Barış Şimşek said in his statement of defence, that he had seen the crowd chanting slogans, and stated:

I was also provoked, and sweared at them. There were many people from our village there. They were all chanting slogans. Pleading guilty, Şimşek said he regretted his actions.

Also noting that there was a group of 20-30 police officers at the scene, Şimşek said:

"Police were in the cemetery, there were approximately 100 of us". Noting that the police did not warn them, Şimşek added "They only later said that that was the funeral of a mother".

(HK/DG)

Source: Evrensel - Ankara