Four suspects arrested as part of inquiry into Okmeydanı clashes

ISTANBUL – Anadolu Agency

Police had staged an early-morning police operation into Istanbul's sensitive neighborhood of Okmeydanı on May 26, detaining 38. DHA Photo

Four of 11 suspects who were sent to court after anti-terror raids on May 26 in Istanbul’s Okmeydanı neighborhood were arrested late May 29 on charges of “committing crimes on behalf of a terrorist organization.”

As part of the ongoing investigation into the clashes between groups and the police last week during which two people were killed and nine others were injured, a public prosecutor from the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s terror and organized crimes department interrogated 14 suspects at an Istanbul courthouse earlier in the day and sent 11 of them to the court with a demand for their arrest.

An Istanbul penal court on duty arrested four of the suspects while releasing the other seven.

The suspects were among 38 people taken into custody following an early-morning police operation targeting a group of people accused of being members of the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C) and participating in illegal demonstrations in Okmeydanı on May 22.
Guns, explosives, Molotov cocktails and computer files were reportedly seized during the operation at 18 different addresses.

A total of 26 people were alleged to be members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) youth structure, the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H) and another 12 of being members of the DHKP/C.

Ugur Kurt, 30, was killed during the protest as he was attending a funeral procession at a cemevi when a bullet fired by police struck him in the head.

The gun that led to the killing of Uğur Kurt during a police crackdown in Istanbul has been found, Interior Minister Efkan Ala said May 29, with prosecutors confirming that it belonged to a police officer.
Ayhan Yılmaz, 42, also died from injuries on May 23 after being wounded by a grenade during clashes between police and protestors.

The demonstrators were protesting against the recent coal mine tragedy in Soma, western Turkey, which claimed the lives of 301 miners, as well as the death of Istanbul teenager, Berkin Elvan, who died in March after spending 269 days in a coma after being shot by police, also in Okmeydanı.