Ex-AK Party MP accused of orchestrating attack that killed six in Siverek
“We have been threatened, abused and battered,” she said, explaining that the ex-MP has been aiming at seizing their title deeds.
The daughter of two people who were among those shot dead in a village in southeastern Sanliurfa’s Siverek district last week has blamed a former Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputy for the attack, according to a report by Euronews Turkish branch on Thursday.
Dilan Izol, who was hiding when the assailants raided her family’s house in Celtik village on June 15, videotaped the armed attack that targeted her parents, Zozan Izol and Hakki Izol, her cousin, Musa Serhat Izol, and her aunt, Meral Izol, reportedly due to a disagreement over land.
The assailants, who allegedly belong to the Izol tribe and are related to the four victims also knocked over and killed Ridvan Bulus and Serdar Delen while
escaping the crime scene in a car.
Cihan Izol, one of the suspects of the attack, and Meral Izol’s sons, Yusuf Rojhat Izol and Mehmet Metin Izol, who were injured in the incident, were arrested as part of the investigation launched by Siverek Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Another two suspects related to the incident, Bulent and Serhat Ferman Izol, were also arrested and sent to Siverek T Type Closed Prison after undergoing a medical check.
Following the incident, 24-year-old Dilan Izol shared the video footage of the armed attack on social media using the hashtag #SiverektekiKatliamaSesVer (speak up for the massacre in Siverek).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jwl5CsbD6Qw
“This was a premeditated slaughter, a genocide. This incident was not murder,” Dilan Izol said.
Emphasizing that the conflict between the families goes a long way back, she added: “Zulfikar Izol, who was a deputy of AKP at the time, abused the power of our government and army for his own purposes, destroying evidence of another incident that took place in 2003.”
“We have been threatened, abused and battered,” she said, explaining that the ex-MP has been aiming at seizing their title deeds.
Izol claimed that the attack on her family, which was carried out by armed assailants who shot her parents in the head and her aunt in the chest, was
intended to kill them.
She further claimed that her 22-year-old cousin was killed through torture when the attackers smashed his head with sticks and stones.
“We buried their bodies secretly, in the dead of night because we were told not to come back to the village to bury our dead. We buried them with the accompaniment of the gendarmerie and an armored vehicle. We couldn’t even
pray properly on their graves. These people [assailants] continue to threaten us even after the attack,” she further elaborated.
Dilan Izol underlined that although a number of deputies and figures from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and Islamist opposition Felicity Party (SP) offered condolences over the phone, she has not received calls from any AKP members yet.
A consultant of the former AKP deputy told Euronews that he can’t speak to the press due to an ongoing legal process but Izol and his lawyer will hold a press statement about the claims against him at a later stage.
Source: ipa
