Special team assigned over cemevi head attack

ISTANBUL - Demirören News Agency

Istanbul Police Department has assigned a special team to inspect the attack carried out by two assailants on Selami Sarıtaş, the head of a cemevi in Istanbul’s Kartal district, on Aug. 5.

One of the two motorcyclists, who allegedly made a scouting trip on the street before, approached Sarıtaş, who was returning home in his car, under the pretext of asking for an address.

“We will get through these days without giving any chance to chaos thanks to common sense,” Sarıtaş said.

Examining the camera records and phone signals in the region, the police assigned a special team to catch the assailants.

“I curse the attack. Those who try to attack our brotherhood will be punished,” Istanbul Governor Ali Yerlikaya said on his Twitter account, after paying a get-well visit to Sarıtaş.

“We think of it as a continuation of the attacks in Ankara. We, as the Alevi community, are experiencing uneasiness,” said Haydar Baki Doğan, the head of the Federation of Alevi Foundations.

On July 30, Ahmet Ozan K., an unemployed man from the western province of İzmir, attacked three Alevi prayer houses, known as the “cemevi” in the capital Ankara in a series of assaults conducted over 45 minutes.

The footage from surveillance cameras showed K. entering three cemevis in the districts of Çankaya and Mamak and he then started throwing chairs inside the Alevis.

According to local reports, police units started a hunt to find out the “real criminals” who set and gave the order for the attacks.