Seven people from Kurdish family shot dead at home in racist assault

Photos: MA

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Seven people from the Dedeoğlu family were killed at home yesterday (July 30) by armed assailants in the Meram district in the Central Anatolian province of Konya.

The assailants reportedly raided the family's home and set the building on fire after killing the family members.

A large number of firefighters and police officers deployed to the area after the incident found the dead bodies of Yaşar Dedeoğlu, Barış Dedeoğlu, Serpil Dedeoğlu, Serap Dedeoğlu, İpek Dedeoğlu, Metin Dedeoğlu and Sibel Dedeoğlu.

"The scoundrels murdered by clients. We warned [the authorities] many times. They murdered seven people, three of whom were women," the attorney of the family, Abdurrahman Karabulut, wrote on Twitter late yesterday (July 30).

The family, who have been living in Konya for 24 years, were previously attacked by a group of about 60 people in May. Four members of the family were injured. They said the attackers had told them "We are the grey wolves [an ultranationalist group]. We won't let you live here."

Ten people were detained and seven of them were remanded in custody after the attack. Two of them were released in June and another two were released earlier this month.

HDP: The government is responsible

Human Rights Association (İHD) Chair Eren Keskin said on Twitter that "They murdered the family they previously attacked. As the İHD, we have been following the case. We are very sorry. A young member of the family had said [to me], 'Sister, we are very scared'."

Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Chair Mithat Sancar blamed the government, saying that its "language of hate and provocation" was the main responsible for the attack.

"In Meram, we have witnessed one of the most horrific examples of the racist attacks that have been going on for a while. The government's language of hate and provocation is the main responsible for this massacre," he said at the party's headquarters in the capital city of Ankara.

"For a long time, the government has been using the language of hate that targets the HDP and the Kurds through the HDP and it has been making statements that lay the groundwork for massacre policies," said Sancar.

"We said that there was a chaos plan when our comrade Deniz Poyraz was killed," Sancar remarked, referring to an armed assault on the party's İzmir office in June, which left party worker Deniz Poyraz killed. 

"... We warned that the government's internal strifes or strifes going on between various powers in the state were wanted to be turned into a chaos plan through the Kurdish people.

"... They target the HDP but a systematic policy of massacre is applied against Kurds through the HDP. Recently, similar racist attacks took place in Afyon, Ankara and Konya. We have constantly stated that these attacks were the continuation of the savage attacks against our comrade Deniz Poyraz." (KÖ/VK)