Sinan Ateş murder: Codes, secrecy, and the quest for justice! 'The real perpetrators must be found'

As two years pass since the murder of Sinan Ateş, the quest for justice continues. Sinan Ateş's family and their lawyers are waging a major struggle to shed light on the murder.

Ayşe Ateş, Selma Ateş, Saniye Ateş, Sevda Ateş, and lawyer Şeyda Şahin believe there is a political connection behind the killing of Sinan Ateş and are striving to bring this link to light. However, the incomplete handling of the file and confidentiality orders make it difficult to ensure justice. The family states that they will continue the struggle no matter what.

According to the report by Candan Yıldız from T24, while the process and its current stage were being discussed with four women in the house where former Ülkü Ocakları President and academic Sinan Ateş grew up in Bursa, the sentence “Even if we are left as three or five people, we will not let this matter go” serves as a confirmation of the struggle method they have adopted...

Candan Yıldız recounts her meeting with the family members regarding the Sinan Ateş case as follows:

I first asked lawyer Şeyda Şahin about the reasoned decision in the Sinan Ateş murder case. Although the decision did not contain any reference to the motive for the murder or whether it had a political leg, the inclusion of the license plate of the vehicle that smuggled the hitman Eray Özyağcı to Istanbul was significant.

“Our appeal periods for the reasoned decision are ongoing. We evaluate our appeal as follows: There is a general assessment between the lines. There are parts where Burak Kılıçtan, Suat Yılmazzobu, and Ahmet Yiğit Yıldırım are mentioned, but these are very much between the lines. Therefore, no concrete allegation has been leveled against these individuals. We are talking about a political assassination. But what is Sinan Ateş's political role, what is it not? Why was Sinan Ateş killed? There is no data regarding this in the reasoned decision. Can we reach a political channel hypothetically from the existing names? Because we know the subject, yes. But when a person who does not know this subject reads the reasoned decision, they cannot deduce the assumption that this is a political assassination as easily as we can. Therefore, in this sense, the reasoned decision is actually incomplete in every aspect.”

Lawyer Şeyda Şahin also shared the following information regarding the 17-person investigation file.

“The main investigation file being conducted is still pending. Are the names mentioned between the lines today in the main investigation file or not? They are most likely there, but we don't know exactly what other names are there because of the confidentiality order.”

I also asked lawyer Şahin whether she knew all the names in the investigation file where 17 people are mentioned.

“We more or less know the names of 14 of the 17 people. Because there are judicial control decisions regarding these individuals, and their statements have been taken. They were somehow contacted during the investigation process, but they were contacted. In other words, they were covered up. Ultimately, this file is being put to sleep, and our main objection here is that the investigation was conducted incompletely, the indictment was prepared incompletely, and a trial was held without returning the incompletely prepared indictment. We were not given much opportunity to ask questions during the trial. That is, whenever we wanted to ask questions about Olcay Kılavuz and Ahmet Yiğit Yıldırım regarding the political wing of this business, our path was constantly blocked. Therefore, we cannot say that the political connection of this business has been established in the reasoned decision. But in our appeals, we say that this is a political murder, a planned murder, and that whoever the real instigators of this political murder are, they must be found, and an effort must be made regarding them. Therefore, the confidentiality order in the main investigation file must now be lifted. After all, there are people being tried in one place. We do not know who is in the other file for the same act, what is there, or what evidence exists. If they shared the evidence with us, perhaps we would also contribute to the realization of justice. Because we go up to a point. Where we go, walls are built in front of us. Because perhaps that person is not in the file at all, that could also be the case, but we continue our search for justice helplessly in an incomplete trial process, wondering if they are there or not.”

The files of the two people being tried were separated. Police officer Mustafa Ensar Aykal and lawyer Serdar Öktem… The court panel is waiting for the answer from Apple to crack the mobile phone passwords of the two individuals. I also asked lawyer Şeyda Şahin if there was any development there.

“We presented the Pınar Gültekin (the young woman killed by Cemal Metin Avcı - CY) file to the court as an example of an application. But what did the court do? It copied and pasted the exact same documents we submitted, the translated documents. In other words, since it was not applied to the concrete case, we already knew that the documents going to Apple would be incomplete. We were not given the right to make a statement. Serdar Öktem and Mustafa Ensar Aykal did not give their passwords. During the trial, one said I forgot, the other said privacy. But we asked if you would give them if you remembered during the trial. They said no, we won't give them, and they didn't. For this reason, since an effective investigation was not conducted, many hackers in Turkey who could crack these passwords reached out to us. They say we can crack these. But we tried to operate the legal procedures. We waited for a written response from Apple, but the letter sent was not explanatory. Therefore, it was requested that these deficiencies be remedied. We were only able to be informed about this on the last day, i.e., the date of delivery of the documents. We wrote a letter, look, you need to ask these things. The court did not take these into account either. Ultimately, it went to Apple incomplete. There is nothing about what the murder is, why this data is needed, etc. There is no possibility that those at Apple know about the murder, of course. The court had to explain this. However, it was not explained. The answer that will come from there will probably not be very positive either. They will have hearings on February 6th. Will a response letter come from Apple by this date? We don't know if it's positive or negative anymore, but we are honestly witnessing that a tremendous effort is being made for it to be negative.”

Although lawyer Şahin said there was a confidentiality order on the file, I also asked her if she had any foresight.

“That file is already sleeping right now. We are constantly making requests. For this file to be opened… It is a universal principle of criminal law. There is only one penalty for a single act. And we say that Tolgahan or Doğukan are not people with the potential to be instigators. They only contributed to the commission of the act. Therefore, we are looking for where the real instigators are. We don't know if they are in that main investigation file. Therefore, when the names there come out, how will the trial be conducted? When the statuses of the men there change, what will be the situation of the men here? Will these people be tried again then? Ultimately, we are not saying let this or that person be tried. We are saying let justice truly be served so that more political murders are not committed and more Sinan Ateşes are not victimized. But we see that we could not even get the court panel to accept the phenomenon of political murder.”

I also asked older sister Selma Ateş about the attendance at the Sinan Ateş mawlid commemoration this year, as it was lower than in previous years.

“Everyone is doing their best to make people forget. There are threats, I was attacked. The threats we receive are made to other people in the same way. People have children. For example, while we were dispersing at the cemetery, a group of 8-10 people came. We know them all. The police removed them from there. Can they intimidate us? They cannot. If there are a thousand people at the head of this grave today, even if we are left with 100 people next year, and five or three people the year after, we will still be at the head of that grave. We will continue to say justice for Sinan Ateş. We will dedicate our lives to cleansing the cause for which Sinan Ateş gave his life from sick-minded people. Because we have given our lives. My father, my mother, me, my older sister, my brother… These are the streets we worked in for years so that the MHP deputy would win. These are the streets we worked in for years for İsmet Büyükataman and others. As you can see, none of them were there. We do not forgive them. In many provinces of Turkey, food is distributed and prayers are read for Sinan. Actually, everyone in every part of Turkey is doing their best. But unfortunately, because we are a minority, we are together as much as our voices can be heard. Why? Because they are the ones who are powerful. If we were a country governed by justice and the judiciary, we would not be experiencing these. But unfortunately, we are governed in the way those who have more power want. While the entire file of the Sinan Ateş murder is in front of everyone, and the killers and instigators are known, some people are still walking around the streets comfortably. Even though we have evidence, they tried very hard to silence us, and they are still trying. Think about it, we walk around with protection. We cannot go anywhere without protection. It is so difficult…”

I was attacked while I was in my car with my child. They threw stones at the windows of my house. They scratched my car. When the last attack happened, when a situation of attempting on my life arose, they gave me close protection. But why am I being protected and the killers are not serving their sentences? Servet Bozkurt, who instigated the attack on the prison campus, killed his wife and his lover. Every crime that goes unpunished has emboldened its perpetrator.”

Lawyer Şeyda Şahin intervened and spoke about how they are fighting with their own strength.

“We are Anatolian people. That is, we are not very wealthy, we do not have very bureaucratic circles. We were stabbed in the back by all of our bureaucratic circles. Everyone is making individual efforts. But when we bring these people together across Turkey, rest assured there is a crowd no less than the crowd at the funeral. When the event is hot, politicians come, take their photos, and leave. But the pain is where it falls. We will always live with this pain. This family will live forever. As long as our strength allows, we will be in search of justice. There are also good people. We have only one goal. No matter what the political climate is, let us not lose such young people in this country again. My promise on my own behalf is this: Even if it is in another political lane, we will support in every way. For example, we took action in the Narin murder, but there was a lot of support. It was said that there is no need for a crowd. We said okay. From now on, we are always here. And to establish justice in this country, we will take this business as far as it can go, with our fingernails, in blood and sweat.”

Mother Saniye Ateş was also one of the five women who never stayed silent. She talked more about her son.

“I can say that I raised my son alone. When they were murdering Sinan, they probably said he is a child who grew up in a slum, there will be no one behind him, there will be no one to back him, those cruel people said. My son did not harm anyone. He was a child who did not discriminate based on religion, language, race, or sect. That is how I raised my child. Maybe they saw my son as an obstacle. I never forgive them. My son's killers and instigators are outside. What did my son do? I want the answer to this. I am 70 years old. I never give up on it. I am the founder of this neighborhood. I raised my son in this house and I said study. Because of my mother's illness, I couldn't even finish primary school. I said no harm ever comes from an educated person. But it turns out it does. They ate my son just because they saw him as a rival to themselves.”

I also asked the other older sister, Sevda Ateş, whom the public does not know much about, about the decision that came out of the case.

“No matter what anyone says, I don't think there is justice in this country. If those at the head of us really showed that there was justice, this case would have been solved in two years. We also lost my father. I dropped out of university. My father would say if you don't study, I won't forgive you. He would say don't be an ignorant person. Sinan would also say let not even my enemy be ignorant. They killed Sinan for the love of a seat. Because Sinan had everything that would allow him to come to a place. Everyone knew this. Sinan saw their flaws. Because he did not approve of the things they did and did not tolerate the torment they inflicted on people, they killed him.”