Bahçeli tells reporter asking about murder of Sinan Ateş to 'mind her own business'

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Reporters wanted to ask questions to the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli today following his speech in his parliamentary group meeting but one reporter asking a question, Yıldız Yazıcıoğlu was pushed and distanced away by Bahçeli's bodyguards.

Yazıcıoğlu first asked Bahçeli a question on the candidacy of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for another term. Bahçeli responded saying, "You have not listened to me, I understand."

Yazıcıoğlu asked a second question on Assoc. Prof. Sinan Ateş, the ex-Grey Wolves leader killed in an armed attack on December 30, 2022 in Ankara.

This time Bahçeli replied Yazıcıoğlu saying "Mind your business."

Bahçeli's bodyguards and MHP members pushed away Yazıcıoğlu and the group walked away.

Gazeteci Yıldız Yazıcıoğlu, MHP liderine Sinan Ateş suikastını sorduğu için, Bahçeli'den "İşine bak" diye cevabını alıyor ve Bahçeli'nin korumaları tarafından saldırıya uğruyor.
Yazıcıoğlu işini yapıyordu zaten...pic.twitter.com/KEx6ZMkOiL

— hayritunc (@hayriituncc) January 24, 2023

What happened?

Sinan Ateş, the ex-president of Grey Wolves, an ultranationalist group affiliated with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), was killed in Ankara on Friday (December 30).

Ateş and his friend Selman Bozkurt were leaving the apartment building where Ateş's office is 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 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 condolence, 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."(TY/PE)