Ankara Governor’s Office says one MP5 machine gun missing

ANKARA

The Ankara Governor’s Office has released a statement regarding an article that made headlines last week about an MP-5-type machine gun used in a murder, confirming that one MP-5 was currently missing. 

A murder suspect named Mustafa Maraş previously told a court that he obtained the weapon he used in a murder from in front of the Ankara police headquarters on the night of the July 15, 2016, failed coup attempt. 

After news broke of the use of the MP-5, whose sale is banned in Turkey and is permitted to be used only by security forces, opposition lawmakers asked whether any weapons belonging to the security forces were missing, prompting the Ankara Governor’s Office to release a statement on the issue. 

In the statement, the authorities said weapons and ammunition were distributed to Ankara police personnel after ID checks were carried out on the night of the attempted takeover, but no written record entry was taken. 

According to the statement, Ankara Police Chief Mahmut Karaaslan ordered the distribution of the weapons to the personnel without waiting for those in charge in order to be fast and effective against coup soldiers, who are widely believed to be the followers of the U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen. 

“The weapons were collected after the coup attempt was foiled. After the counting was done, it was understood that one MP-5 weapon was missing. The issue was written in a report and related units across Turkey were informed in order to search for the weapon,” the statement said.