Striking detail in the expert report on the Sinan Ateş case

Data recovered from the phone of Tolgahan Demirbaş, who is also accused of helping the hitman escape in the Sinan Ateş murder, has entered the investigation file via an expert report. The phone data, which was evaluated with visuals in the expert report, revealed striking correspondence prior to the Ateş murder and communications regarding the assassination, which is understood to have been planned months in advance. 

Asuman Aranca from T24 has obtained the expert report that has been added to the ongoing investigation file regarding the murder of Ateş.

Exactly one year has passed since the murder of former Ülkü Ocakları President Sinan Ateş in Ankara on December 30. Asuman Aranca has obtained the expert report that has been added to the investigation file, which has been ongoing for a year regarding the murder of Ateş. The report, which contains important information about the organization behind the murder, includes data recovered through a special program from the mobile phone that Tolgahan Demirbaş, who is alleged to have helped the hitman Eray Özyağcı escape after the murder, had wiped.

22 people arrested

Former Ülkü Ocakları President Sinan Ateş lost his life as a result of an armed attack he was subjected to in Çukurambar, one of the most central locations in Ankara, on December 30, 2022. Regarding the murder, which has passed exactly one year, 22 people have been arrested to date within the scope of the investigation, including the hitman Eray Özyağcı, Doğukan Çep who organized the armed action, former Ülkü Ocakları executives Tolgahan Demirbaş, Emre Yüksel, and lawyer Serdar Öktem, as well as 3 police officers.

Data recovered, correspondence emerged

While the investigation was ongoing, the prosecutor's office sent the suspects' mobile phones to an expert. The report prepared by the expert has been added to the file. In the report, the correspondence belonging to Tolgahan Demirbaş, who was revealed to have been caught in the house used by former MHP MP Olcay Kılavuz in Ankara, drew attention. Information revealing that the Ateş assassination was planned months in advance emerged from the phone, which Demirbaş had deleted but whose data was recovered thanks to a special program.

“They have pulled the plug on Ateş”

The expert report included Demirbaş's correspondence. The correspondence shows that Ateş had been under surveillance starting approximately 9 months before he was killed. Accordingly, on March 10, 2022, 9 months before Ateş was killed, Demirbaş sent Ateş's phone number to Murder Bureau Commissioner M.E.A., who was revealed to be actively serving in the police leg of the investigation and was detained and arrested on October 19, saying, “My commissioner, our GB (General President) requested it, we need the phone number 0505 …. and the address, if it's not too much trouble for you.” Commissioner M.E.A. replied to Demirbaş, whom he addressed as “Reis” (Chief), saying, “Reis, this number leads to the previous GB.” Demirbaş's reply was, “Exactly, Reis, they have pulled the plug on him.” Afterwards, M.E.A. replied, “I'm calling in a bit, Reis.”

The expert report points out that approximately 1.5 hours after this correspondence, Demirbaş saved Ateş's address in the “notes” section of his phone, stating, “It is assessed that M.E.A. called Demirbaş and gave him the address after querying Ateş's address from the system. Furthermore, it has been determined that M.E.A. and Demirbaş had 5 conversations 1 day before the murder of Sinan Ateş.”

Communication visual included in the expert report

Commissioner addresses Demirbaş as “Reisim”

In a correspondence on April 14, 2022, Tolgahan Demirbaş also requested that Commissioner M.E.A. query the license plate of the vehicle belonging to Ali Yücel, a close friend and lawyer of Ateş, who was on his way to Ateş's office at the time the murder took place. M.E.A. performed a query in the system and provided the address and phone information belonging to Yücel to Demirbaş, whom he addressed as “Reisim” (My Chief).

“Couldn't they find him at the address in Istanbul?”

Demirbaş did not only request information about Ateş from Commissioner M.E.A. According to the report, Demirbaş, who also made similar requests to Çağlar Zorlu, who is alleged to be a former MIT member, during the same period, requested that he find and send Ateş's real-time location from his mobile phone signal information in March and April 2022. Zorlu also sent Demirbaş the address of the base station where Ateş's mobile phone last received a signal. While Çağlar Zorlu, who transmitted the real-time location information that Ateş was in Ataşehir, Istanbul, asked Demirbaş a few days later, “Couldn't they find him at the address in Istanbul?”, Demirbaş replied, “Negative, brother, the location was not suitable.” In the expert report, the assessment is made for this conversation: “It is understood that an action was to be carried out against Ateş in the province of Istanbul on this date, but the location was not suitable.”

“My research continues, I submit for your consideration”

One of the most striking dimensions of Demirbaş's correspondence is the conversations held with Ülkü Ocakları President Ahmet Yiğit Yıldırım. Tolgahan Demirbaş forwards the information received from Çağlar Zorlu, who is alleged to be a former MIT member, to Yıldırım, saying, “My research continues, sir, I just received this information, I submit for your consideration.” In another correspondence, Yıldırım asks Demirbaş whether Sinan Ateş has entered Turkey or not. Demirbaş, who says “I'm having it checked immediately,” replies one day later, “He has returned to Turkey, he is currently in the country.”

“We have set up the team, they will shoot him in the head”

One of the people from whom Tolgahan Demirbaş received information about Ateş is a person named S.Y. On April 7, 2022, Demirbaş requested an address from S.Y. by sending a screenshot containing information including the ID number of Sinan Ateş's wife. One day later, S.Y. sent the home address of Ayşe Ateş in Yenimahalle, Ankara, which he is thought to have reached through an acquaintance, to Demirbaş, saying, “Brother, the phone number was active.” Four days later, S.Y. asked Demirbaş this time “if anything came of the number and address,” and then added, “Brother, keep this between us, but Muhabbet President talked to Şakir. He said we have set up the team, they will shoot him in the head.” Demirbaş replied to S.Y., “We are waiting with curiosity too.”

They watched Ateş's house

A few hours after S.Y. sent Ayşe Ateş's address to Tolgahan Demirbaş, some videos and photos were sent to Demirbaş by a person named Burak Kılıç. In these photos and videos obtained from the phone whose data was recovered, it is understood that Kılıç went to the site where Ateş's house in Yenimahalle is located and sent videos and photos to Demirbaş from there. On Kılıç's social media profile, it is written that he is the “Deputy Chairman of Ülkü Ocakları.”

Demirbaş's question to Ünel: “Partner, is there anything?”

Another correspondence between B.K. and Tolgahan Demirbaş includes discussions regarding the knife attack on former Mersin Ülkü Ocakları President Çağrı Ünel. Accordingly, on the day the attack on Ünel was carried out, Demirbaş asked B.K., “Partner, is there anything?” After not receiving an answer for a few hours, Demirbaş wrote, “Brother, I don't understand why you aren't writing.” B.K. then wrote, “The kid died, from the Kadirli branch, Çağrı Ünel shot and killed him.” Demirbaş asked, “Oh damn... What will happen now?”

Ünel was subjected to a knife attack by 4 members of the Ülkü Ocakları on March 15, 2022, approximately 9 months before the Ateş murder. During the attack, Ünel also responded with his gun. The bullet from Ünel's gun hit Emrullah Kaplan, a member of the Ülkü Ocakları. Kaplan could not be saved despite all interventions and lost his life. Within the scope of the investigation initiated, Ünel was arrested. Later, a lawsuit was filed against Ünel and those involved in the attack. The court did not consider Ünel's shooting as self-defense, and as a result of the trial, Ünel was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Ünel had also testified as a witness within the scope of the Ateş investigation.

“We will strike like a LIGHTNING”

On the evening of the day Ünel was attacked, B.K. forwarded a message to Demirbaş shared on social media by a person named E.G., which contained the content: “If B.K. has withdrawn, the enemy is not chosen, from this hour on, one less or one more. Even if you are a storm, you can only take dust from this rock. Even if you are fire, you cannot burn a handful of grass. We will strike the traitors like LIGHTNING.” The next morning, Demirbaş asked B.K., “Is there any activity regarding S.A?” and received the answer “No.” The report states that the person referred to as S.A in the correspondence between Demirbaş and B.K. is assessed to be Sinan Ateş, who was also a close friend of Ünel.

Emre Yüksel requested that information

There are also discussions about Sinan Ateş in the correspondence between Tolgahan Demirbaş and Emre Yüksel, the Deputy Chairman of Ülkü Ocakları, who is under arrest within the scope of the investigation. Accordingly, it is understood that the person who sent Ateş's friend Ali Yücel's license plate to Demirbaş and requested information was Emre Yüksel. Afterwards, Demirbaş sent the license plate information sent by Yüksel to Commissioner M.E.A. at the murder bureau and requested the information. After querying the system, M.E.A. stated that the license plate belonged to Ali Yücel and transmitted it along with his address.

He sent the location where the hitman would be dropped off before the murder

The most striking correspondence between Tolgahan Demirbaş and Emre Yüksel took place approximately 40 minutes before Sinan Ateş was shot. Demirbaş sent a location to Yüksel at 12:54 and 12:58. At 14:48, he forwarded a post written in another group stating that Ateş had been attacked and lost his life to Yüksel. The location Demirbaş sent to Yüksel turns into very important evidence for the clarification of the murder.

In the research conducted, it is understood that this location, which Demirbaş sent to Yüksel approximately 40 minutes before the attack, is the first address where the hitman, who was transported by motorcycle after the attack, was dropped off. While Vedat Balkaya, who was driving the motorcycle, was dropping the hitman off at the address at this location, the person who picked him up from the address was again Tolgahan Demirbaş. Among the information obtained is that the prosecutor's office assesses that the person who transmitted the location sent by Demirbaş to Balkaya was Emre Yüksel.

They spoke 35 times on the day of the murder

It is also understood that there was striking phone traffic between the Tolgahan Demirbaş-Emre Yüksel duo on the day the murder was committed. Accordingly, while 58 conversations took place between the two between December 29-31, covering the day before and the day after the murder, the number of mutual calls starting at 12:20 on the day of the murder (December 30, 2023), that is, approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes before the attack on Ateş, appears to be 35.

Flight information queried

In another correspondence of Tolgahan Demirbaş, it is understood that he requested a person named G.H. to query Sinan Ateş's flight record, and this person performed the query and sent a screenshot of the result. G.H. later warned Demirbaş, saying, “President, you know better, Sinan was coming to the port with a gun, he might pass through Haluk's place too,” and Demirbaş replied to G.H., “I think so too, we will make the plan accordingly.” It is also noteworthy that this correspondence took place in the evening hours, 7-8 hours after Ünel was attacked in Mersin.

'FETÖ' accusation against Ateş from Orhun Haber

In March, when the correspondence regarding Sinan Ateş being followed for the first time months before the murder took place, another striking development occurred. In one of the groups in Demirbaş's WhatsApp application, a link to the news titled “A fire of betrayal” dated March 5, which was made by the Orhun Haber account on Twitter (formerly known as X) about Sinan Ateş and claimed that he was a FETÖ member, was shared. Later, comments such as “The operation against Sinan has started,” “I swear, Chief, we will hear that they beat Sinan today or tomorrow” were made by the people in the group under this post.

The account named Orhun Haber also targeted Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor Ahmet Akça and accused him of being a “FETÖ member,” and within the scope of the investigation initiated regarding this, Ülkü Ocakları Deputy Chairman Mert Kerim Ejder and his brother Servet Ejder were arrested on the allegation that they managed the account. 

Yıldırım and Şanlı became suspects, travel ban imposed on them

On the other hand, it was learned that the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, after former MHP MP Olcay Kılavuz, also registered Ülkü Ocakları President Ahmet Yiğit Yıldırım and Ülkü Ocakları Ankara Provincial President Ömer Şanlı as “suspects” in the file last May. It was also reported that a travel ban was imposed on the two names.

News Source: 12punto