Instigator and gunman change testimonies at Sinan Ateş trial, case spawns new suspect

Caner Taşpınar / 12punto.com.tr

Former Ülkü Ocakları President and Hacettepe University faculty member Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sinan Ateş lost his life as a result of an armed attack in Ankara on December 30, 2022.

The 22 defendants facing charges related to the murder, including "premeditated murder," "attempted murder," "incitement to commit a crime," and "aiding and abetting a crime," began their trial today.

I followed the proceedings in the courtroom inside the Sincan Prison Campus in Ankara. It was important to listen to the defendants' statements and the details of the murder in that courtroom.

The defendants in the Sinan Ateş murder case include figures from the MHP.

Tolgahan Demirbaş and Emre Yüksel had served as executives in the Ülkü Ocakları. One of the defendants, MHP lawyer Serdar Öktem, had also been an MHP Istanbul parliamentary candidate. Another MHP figure is Ufuk Köktürk, an executive at the MHP Istanbul Provincial Presidency…

As such, the case was debated through the lens of the MHP. MHP Chairman Devlet Bahçeli had also stated in his announcement last week that they would send a team of lawyers to the hearing. That team was in the courtroom, but their request to join the case was denied.

THE GUNMAN ADDED A NEW SUSPECT TO THE CASE

The hearing began with the defense of the gunman, Eray Özyağcı. In his previous statements in the file, Eray Özyağcı had claimed that he planned everything on his own and that there was no instigator. He said he had somehow deceived the people he was in contact with among the defendants into helping him. Eray Özyağcı retracted this inconsistent statement. Saying, "I lied so as not to betray my brother Doğukan," Özyağcı stated that he committed the murder under the instructions of Doğukan Çep.

When Eray Özyağcı changed his testimony and said, "I was going to shoot Sinan Ateş in the legs for Doğukan Çep's debt, I wasn't going to kill him. I don't understand how he died," he pointed to a single instigator, leaving former Ülkü Ocakları executive Tolgahan Demirbaş, who is being tried as an instigator in the case, in a difficult position.

The change in testimony did not stop there…

Eray Özyağcı did not only change his testimony regarding Doğukan Çep. He also added a "suspect" named "Mustafa Kemal" to the case.

Özyağcı said the following:

"A person named Mustafa Kemal put me in the trunk and took me to Izmir. I stayed inside a villa for about a month. Mustafa Kemal put me in the trunk of the vehicle and dropped me off in Edirne. When he took me out of the trunk, he said there had been an earthquake. He handed me over to the people who arranged the boat. I got into the boat to cross the river, and our soldiers fired there.

I jumped into the water and swam to Greece. After waiting for 2-3 hours, Greek soldiers caught me. I was beaten very severely.

They later threw me back to the border line. I surrendered afterwards anyway. They took me and brought me to Ankara. As soon as I entered the police station, psychological pressure began. During my interrogation, I always told lies and stories so as not to betray my brother."

Adding a new suspect to the case certainly had a logic to it.

IS THE GREY VEHICLE THERE TO OVERSHADOW THE AUDI?

Let's make a reminder and come to the "grey" vehicle…

The vehicle with flashing lights, which was not included in the indictment prepared for the Sinan Ateş murder, had become a topic of discussion weeks ago.

The image of the vehicle, which was mentioned in the indictment only as an 'Audi brand' without even its license plate being provided, and which was alleged to have been used to smuggle the gunman Eray Özyağcı from Ankara to Istanbul, had been highly debated.

In the footage, it was seen that the vehicle, which was learned to be assigned for protection and used by former Ülkü Ocakları executives Tolgahan Demirbaş and Emre Yüksel, who are shown as instigators in the indictment, had flashing lights.

Furthermore, it was revealed that Ülkü Ocakları President Ahmet Yiğit Yıldırım also used this vehicle.

When Tolgahan Demirbaş was asked at the hearing who this vehicle belonged to, he could not deny it and said, "It is clear which institution it belongs to, I do not want to say."

While Eray Özyağcı was adding the name "Mustafa Kemal," whom he said lived in Istanbul, as a new suspect to the case, he also added a "grey vehicle" to the mix.

It was as if the gunman Özyağcı wanted to push the 'Audi brand' vehicle, which points to the Ülkü Ocakları and whose image is in the file, off the agenda with this "new" vehicle…

So much so that…

Gunman Eray Özyağcı had met with the vehicle that would smuggle him away at a certain location after committing the murder. Tolgahan Demirbaş had also sent this location to one of the defendants, Emre Yüksel, on the day of the murder. However, Tolgahan Demirbaş explained this as a coincidence, saying, "We were going to meet at the farmhouse, I sent this location because the farmhouse was close to there, it was a coincidence."

In the first hearing of the Sinan Ateş murder case, a new suspect and a new vehicle were added to the file.

Let's see what we will witness in the upcoming hearings…

I hope these "coincidences" of the defendants do not overshadow the facts.