Police detains ‘pink-shirted provocateur’

Taner Yener - ISTANBUL / Doğan New Agency

İ.S. was filmed while making a V sign with the Kurdish protesters and “the wolf gesture” with Turkish nationalists.

Istanbul police detained a man on June 5 after he was outed by social media users as “the pink-shirted provocateur” who participated in a fiery Kurdish protest minutes before attending a Turkish nationalist demonstration in the same neighborhood.

Tensions ran high in the Gaziosmanpaşa neighborhood of Istanbul last weekend over a protest organized by the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). İ.S., 29, was filmed among the crowd making a V sign and calling for the release of Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Minutes after the HDP protest, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) supporters convened in the same neighborhood for a counter demonstration. Social media users noticed that the pink-shirted İ.S. was among the protesters, again, this time making “the wolf gesture” of the MHP and performing the tekbir – the phrase “Allahu ekber” (God is great).

The possible motive of İ.S., who was detained by counter-terrorism units, is not clear. Here is the footage: