Ex-Grey Wolves leader shot dead in Ankara

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Sinan Ateş, the ex-president of Grey Wolves, a far-right paramilitary organization and political movement affiliated with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), was killed in Ankara on Friday (December 30).

Ateş and his friend Selman Bozkurt were leaving an apartment building 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.

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

Many claimed that Ateş had resigned from MHP and was establishing connections with İYİ (Good) Party, a splinter movement from the MHP, and that this disturbed the MHP circles.

MHP did not express condolence and did not make any announcements on such claims. No officials from the party attended the funeral.

"Meth-addicted gunman"

Yeniçağ daily columnist Yavuz Selim Demirağ made another claim on the killing of Ateş; he wrote that the gunmen had come from İstanbul.

Demirağ wrote that there was someone called "Dado" leading the team of gunmen and that E.Ö. who made the shooting was now a fugitive. Demirağ also claimed that the policemen investigating the murder were under pressure.

Demirağ wrote on Saturday (December 31) "I learned who the murderers of Sinan Ateş are. Those who are involved should be afraid. It will be your turn next... It is not Ankara-centered, as people think. [They are] coming from İstanbul, Maltepe, Gülsuyu. I will be disclosing who are those giving instructions to the meth-addicted gunman who ran away and how the "ducks" were caught tomorrow afternoon."

"Great pressure on the police"

Demirağ then wrote on Sunday, "The murder of Sinan Ateş is a political murder. Those who instigated it used a criminal gang as a jobber. They may try to show this as a "judicial case." We have to take the claims that there is great pressure on the police seriously.

Demirağ also named the gunman as E.Ö. and wrote that H.S and two others named Suat and Zekeriya were detained but that the gunman (E.Ö) has run away. He also added that it was difficult to reach to political connections at the moment but that it should be possible with the means at hand. 

Reactions from politicians

Reactions came to the murder of Ateş from the opposition while those from the ruling alliance kept silent until this moment. 

The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu expressed his condolences and wrote on Friday "the state should shed light on this murder. We should not be taken in by those who want to stir up the streets."

İYİ Party leader Meral Akşener did not make a separate statement yet but she retweeted the condolences of the party speaker on Friday. 

Gelecek (Future) Party leader and ex-prime minister and AKP member Ahmet Davutoğlu said, "A politician, Sinan Ateş was murdered at the center of Ankara. 48 hours have passed. Nothing from the President, or Bahçeli, or the Interior Minister, or the Minister of Justice. Are some people getting prepared for political murders on the streets of the country? Or do some want to go to elections in a tense atmosphere?"

About Sinan Ateş

Sinan Ateş was married and the father of two daughters.

He became the leader of the Grey Wolves in 2019 following the instruction of MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli. In the period when İYİ Party 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 as the president of the Grey Wolves and started to work in the Hacettepe University History department.

Sinan Ateş was born in Dursunbey, Balıkesir in 1984 and he studied in Bursa until graduating from high school. He then went to the Gazi University Education Department in Ankara in 2002.

He completed his postgraduate studies at Hacettepe University in Ankara between 2010-2018. Ateş was the high school leader of the Grey Wolves in Bursa between 2000-2002 and in the boards of the Ankara branch and headquarters of Grey Wolves between 2002-2006.

About Grey Wolves

The Grey Wolves are seen as the paramilitary wing of the MHP, the political party supporting President Erdoğan's government and making up the People's Alliance together with his AKP.

In 2020 France officially banned the Grey Wolves after a center dedicated to the memory of those who died in the mass killings of Armenians during World War I was defaced with graffiti, including the name of the Grey Wolves.

Earlier last year, the European Parliament called on the European Union and its member states to examine the possibility of adding the Grey Wolves to the EU terrorist list.

In its 2019-2020 report prepared by Turkey rapporteur Nacho Sanchez Amor, the EP voiced concerns about the group, saying it was expanding to worrying levels not only in Turkey but also in EU countries. (RT/PE/VK)