Sinan Ateş's sister believes instigators of murder of her brother have not been caught

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Selma Ateş, elder sister of Sinan Ateş, the ex-President of Grey Wolves who was killed in Ankara on December 30, 2022, said that nobody from the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) visited them or expressed their condolences after the killing of her brother.  

Selma Ateş talked to journalist İsmail Saymaz. She said that there had been three attempted attacks on her brother already before the murder and that he was threatened. "He and his friends were receiving threatening messages. We were expecting an attack but not something like this. We did not believe that anyone could dare do this. Because we did not think, they had the bagmen do it," Ateş told Saymaz.

"Who is behind the Sinan Ateş murder?" 

Selma Ateş says that she cannot answer the question of who was behind the Sinan Ateş murder. She says, "I hope that justice will be secured for all that had this done and all involved. There are 22 people arrested now. But I do not believe that the instigators are among them. I believe that the instigators are outside. You can have a drug addict or a bagman do anything when you give him 100 lira." 

"My brother's soul is not at ease when the instigators are wandering around, outside. If there are 22 people on the side that we can see, how many are there on the side that we cannot see? There is this network if we should call it such, including politicians, parliamentarians, bagmen; what power can gather all of them together? Who are behind it? Why did they think that Sinan deserved this? The ones who should answer are the instigators."

What happened?

Tolgahan Demirbaş, the arrested suspect charged with sharing the location before Sinan Ateş was assassinated and fleeing the gunman Eray Özyağcı afterward was caught in a house where MHP Mersin MP Olcay Kılavuz was also present during the police raid. 

The custody report kept by the police when Demirbaş was caught at the house Kılavuz was also present was later lost. 

Eray Özyağcı, the fugitive murder suspect was caught by the border troops when trying to flee to Greece and then arrested. 

There are 21 persons arrested in relation to the investigation. 

About Sinan Ateş

Sinan Ateş 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 on the boards of the Ankara branch and headquarters of Grey Wolves between 2002-2006.

He was married and the father of two daughters.

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. (AS/PE)