Three more detentions in ex-Grey Wolves leader assassination case

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Three more suspects have been taken into custody in the investigation into the killing of Sinan Ateş, an academic and a former leader of the Grey Wolves, an ultranationalist group affiliated with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).

Tolgahan Demirbaş, a former Grey Wolves executive, Emre Y., and Serdar Öktem, a lawyer, were detained this morning (January 25) upon an order by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office.

Emre Y. was first reported as a principal clerk for the MHP, but Semih Yalçın, the party's deputy chair refuted the reports.

Ateş was on December 30 shot dead by an assailant on a motorcycle in Maltepe, İstanbul.

Demirbaş was previously detained twice in this investigation, but was released upon judicial control measures.

So far, 15 suspects have been remanded in custody in relation to Ateş's killing.

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."

(AS/VK)