Murderer of HDP member Deniz Poyraz jailed

On 17 June, an armed assailant, Onur Gencer, attacked the HDP office in the western Turkish province of İzmir. Deniz Poyraz, the daughter of a party employee, was in the office, and she lost her life as a result of the assailant’s gunfire. 

The premises, which were under round-the-clock police surveillance, were set on fire by the perpetrator.  In his first statement to the police after detention, the 27-year-old attacker said, “I have no connection with anyone. I entered the building because I hated the PKK, and I shot random fires.”

The assailant also stated that “his aim was to find a few people there, ” adding that “if there had been others, he would have shot at them as well.”

The racist attacker was referred to court earlier today after the procedures in police custody, and has been remanded in custody.

According to HDP Co-Chair Mithat Sancar who spoke about the attack yesterday, a board meeting with about forty people was set to take place in the building today. The meeting had been postponed at short notice. “So it was not just about murdering any person. It was set to be a massacre,” he explained.

Based on the murderer’s social media accounts, it is understood that he is not an ordinary person and did plan the attack beforehand. Weapons and racist remarks can be seen on the assailant’s Instagram account.

There are many photos of the attacker with a gun in his hand. Among different models of guns are also long-barreled weapons in his posts. Moreover, some of these photographs were taken in the cities of Rojava and Syria occupied by the Turkish state. The photos show that the attacker received military training.

In a photo titled “Syria memory”, he seems to be holding a long-barreled weapon at a battle front in the city of Manbij, Northeast Syria. In another photo taken in Aleppo, Gencer, in military camouflage, is seen making the Grey Wolf sign associated with ultra nationalist paramilitary group called idealists. 

These photographs show that the attacker took part in Turkish state-backed paramilitary structures and was in Syria in recent years.

Various information and documents have emerged so far that Turkey has used these paramilitary structures in the civil war in Syria.

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