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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Turkish security forces have arrested the main suspect in the murder of seven members of a Kurdish family in Konya province, state media reported on Wednesday.
Seven members of the Dedeoglu family, who lived in the Meram district of Konya, were killed on Friday evening. Their house was subsequently set on fire. The family had been injured on May 12 in an attack by nationalist Turks who were their neighbors.
In CCTV footage broadcast by Turkish media this week, Mehmut Altun, 33, can be seen brandishing a weapon at the family’s home on the night of the murders.
He was arrested on Wednesday afternoon, the state-owned Anadolu Agency (AA) has reported.
Fourteen suspects had been arrested for the murder, but four were later released.
The murders have stirred up anger both in Turkey and abroad, especially among Kurds - some of whom have described it as a racist attack.
Yasar Dedeoglu, 65, and his family moved from the Kurdish-majority Kars province to Konya more than two decades ago.
He spoke to Rudaw on July 12, the day his attackers went on trial for the May attack on the family. “They said: ‘We are Ulkucu [Idealists]. We will remove you from here. You are Kurds and do not deserve to stay here.’ They have been saying this for 12 years,” he said, referring to a group that is affiliated with the far-right Nationalist Movement Party’s (MHP) Grey Wolves.
Turkish authorities have denied the attack had racist links.
On Wednesday, the family’s lawyer, Abdulrrahman Karabulut, said that the group that had attacked the family in May had “created a WhatsApp group and planned the massacre in an organized way.”
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