Two police officers arrested in ex-nationalist head’s murder

ANKARA

Four more suspects, including two special operations police officers, have been arrested in the investigation launched into the assassination of the former head of the ultra-nationalist group, Grey Wolves, bringing the total number to 10.

Two attackers on a motorcycle had shot Sinan Ateş, an academic from Hacettepe University, in the head as he was leaving a building in the capital Ankara last week. Ateş, seriously injured, could not be saved despite all the interventions in the hospital.

As part of the investigation, four more people, including special operations police officers Murat Can Çolak and Aşkın Mert Gelenbey, were arrested.

Doğukan Çep, claimed to be the instigator of the attack, was also nabbed on late Jan. 5, while the alleged shooter Eray Özyağcı has still not been caught.

Çep was caught in a hotel raid carried out by the joint work of the Istanbul and Ankara police in the Beykoz district while trying to flee to the forest area. Two guns were seized during the search.

In 2013, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison together with Şahin Eren and Hakan Taşhan by an Istanbul court in the case of Hasan Ferit Gedik, who was killed by shooting at an anti-drug march in Maltepe district. Çep, for whom an arrest warrant was issued, had been on the run for five years.

Vedat Balkaya, who were riding the motorcycle, Hakan Saraç and Zekeriya A., among the 18 suspects detained within the scope of the investigation opened by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, were previously arrested.

Four other suspects, including Ufuk Köktürk, who was in the former Istanbul administration of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), were referred to the courthouse earlier. Köktürk, M.U. and M.Y. were arrested on the charge of “deliberate killing by design,” while a travel ban was applied to E.U. freed by the court.

The Grey Wolves, officially known by the name Idealist Hearths, or Ülkü Ocakları in Turkish, is a far-right youth organization and political movement affiliated with the MHP.