Öznur Değer 

 

KONYA - Seher Yakut, sister of İpek Dedeoğulları, who was killed as a result of the racist attack, underlined that the incident was a racist attack and reacted to the discourses of ‘’hostility’’. Seher said: ‘’Because they do not like the Kurds, they entered the house and committed a massacre. We are Kurds.’’

 

A Kurdish family from Kars was killed in the attack carried out by a racist attacker named Mehmet Altun on July 30 in the Hasanköy District of Konya's Meram district. While our prosecutors were assigned with the Konya Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, 13 people known to be related to the incident were detained. The perpetrator of the massacre, Mehmet Altun, has not been caught for six days.

 

The perpetrators were released, the massacre took place

 

The murdered Yaşar and İpek Dedeoğulları and their children Serap, Serpil, Sibel, Barış and Metin Dedeoğulları were battered on May 12 by their neighbor Ayşe Keleş, the sister of the perpetrator of the massacre Mehmet Altun, and his relatives Lütfi, Veli and Ali Keleşi, Yahya and Ali Çalık. After the family complained about the perpetrators of violence, an investigation was launched into the incident, and six perpetrators were arrested within the scope of the investigation. Later, the perpetrators Ayşe and Veli Keleş, and Ali and Yahya Çalık were released. While only Lütfü and Ali Keleş were detained among the perpetrators of violence, the family who was attacked stated that the incident was a racist attack, and these statements were also reflected in the minutes. The fact that the perpetrator of the massacre, Mehmet Altun, is Ayşe Keleş's brother and he is a relative of other perpetrators of violence, strengthens the possibility that the massacre was carried out in an organized manner.

 

Racist attack

 

After the massacre took place, the Governor of Konya, the Konya Police Chief, the Minister of Interior and many other names from the government stated as ‘’It is not a racist attack. There was hostility between the two families.’’ Contrary to their statements, the family’s relatives shared that the incident was a racist attack and that they were subjected to violence and threatened before because they were Kurds. Reacting to the fact that the perpetrator was still not caught, the relatives of the family said: ‘’Our relatives were murdered just because they were Kurds.’’

 

‘I could not see their funerals’

 

Seher Yakut, sister of the murdered İpek Dedeoğulları, told what she heard on the day of the massacre. Seher, who lives in England and came to Konya after receiving the news that her sister, sister’s husband and nephews were murdered while she was on holiday in Ağrı, described the incident as follows: ‘’The murderer comes to their house and drinks tea, then he pulls out his gun and starts to squeeze it repeatedly. Then he shoots everyone one by one. He shot to my sister İpek many times. I have heard of these, but I have not seen their funerals.’’

 

‘We have not seen or experienced such a massacre’

 

Having emotional moments, Seher reminded that the same attackers attacked her sister and family on May 12. Stating that she heard about the incident from her sister İpek, Seher said: ‘’They said they did not like the Kurds, that is why they beat family. They did not like my sister and her family because they were Kurds. They were asked to leave this place, and family said they would not leave their homes, but they did not stop. They said, ‘’We do not like the Kurds’’. We have never experienced anything like this before, it is the first time we have experienced it. We have never seen or experienced such a massacre in our lives.’’

 

‘Because they do not like Kurds, they entered the house and committed a massacre’

 

Responding to the government, which did not define the incident as a ‘’racist attack’’ and described it as ‘’hostility’’, Seher said: ‘’They entered the house because they did not like the Kurds and committed a massacre,’’ and she continued: ‘’We are Kurds. Our origins are Kurdish. We stand by the Kurds. How would we live without the Kurds?’’

 

‘The polices who did not break up the fight came to the funeral’

 

Sadriye Güven, a relative of the Dedeoğulları family, said that she did not see the incident but heard that her relatives were killed because they were Kurds. Saying that everyone wants to be Turkified, Sadriye said: ‘’They want Kurdish not to be spoken. This is a racist attack. Previously, they said that they would expel the Kurds from here and destroy them. Why are they lying? They have made it clear that they do not want the Kurds. No action was taken. They repeatedly demanded protection from the police. They said, ‘They are persecuting us,’ but they were not protected. Finally, they killed and destroyed the family. The polices came to condolence and I said to them: ‘’Don’t come. They had been fighting for months, you did not come, why are you coming now?’’