Two arrested over attack on AKP office in Istanbul

ISTANBUL

Two people have been arrested in connection with the shooting outside an election campaign office of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Istanbul on April 25.

The suspects opened fire at the AKP’s election campaign office in the Güngören district. No injuries were reported in the incident, but the office’s windowpanes were shattered.

Police detained the suspects shortly after the incident, and they were arrested following interrogation. The motive for the attack remains unclear.

Türkiye is scheduled to hold general and presidential elections on May 14. This incident is the latest in a series of attacks on political campaign offices. On April 6, at around 4 a.m., a gun was fired into the air from a vehicle passing by the building of the main opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) Istanbul headquarters.

Following the investigation by the police, four people who were determined to have links with the incident were detained, and three of them were released on condition of judicial control. E.D., on the other hand, was arrested.

In a similar incident that took place at the İYİ (Good) Party’s Istanbul headquarters on March 31, two bullets hit the building. Melikşah Erdem, the guard of a construction site near the party’s building, said he used the gun to intervene in a theft.

The building where the CHP’s Trabzon headquarters is located was also shot at on March 13. Three suspects were detained after police determined that the windows of the floor where the party was located were cracked and there were traces of lead dust.