Sinem Özkan, Sibel Özkan and Zülbiye Karasu died on April 2, 2006, in an attack staged by terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) supporters as they waited at a bus stop. The attackers had thrown a Molotov cocktail at an İstanbul city bus. In the past three-and-a-half years the police have viewed footage from more than 300 security cameras, talked to a witness and taken the testimony of an ex-PKK member to find the attackers. The capture is the culmination of painstaking and determined police work. Eight people were captured in an operation on Thursday. Of the suspects, Ömer G., Mehmet Ali D., Şeyhmus A., Özgür T., Özcan B. and İbrahim D. were arrested on charges of membership in the terrorist organization. The other suspects, Nurşin D. and Reis B., were released pending trial.
The lengthy investigation carried out by teams from the İstanbul anti-terrorism unit was greatly aided by the testimony of a secret witness who provided valuable information about the attackers and those who gave the order to attack. More than 1,000 were questioned during the quest to find the perpetrators that caused the deaths of three İstanbul residents. The police have established that the order to attack was given by Lütfi D., who has since been arrested as part of an operation into the PKK’s urban arm, the Kurdish Democratic Confederation (KCK). The police also found that Ömer Ç. organized the Molotov cocktail attack. Ömer Ç. was arrested in Hatay where he was doing his military service.
The police identified the person who stopped the bus that was attacked as Bilal A., who also had earlier been arrested in a KCK operation. The investigation also revealed that Nurşin D. and İbrahim D., siblings of Lütfi D., also joined the attack, stoned the bus and chanted slogans supporting the PKK’s Abdullah Öcalan. The other militants in the attack were identified as Mehmet Ali D., Reis B., Şeyhmuz A., Özgür T. and Ercan B. One of the eight suspects agreed to cooperate with the police, something that might reduce a jail sentence or, in fact, completely eliminate it in most cases, under a Turkish law that offers partial amnesty. The person, whose identity was withheld, told police that Molotov cocktail attack was the last attack he or she took part in. The witness said they could not sleep for days after the attack, believing that what had happened was extremely violent and therefore ended their involvement in the PKK’s protests.
The families of the deceased said they were relieved that their children’s murderers have been arrested.
The deaths of three in Esenler were not the first or the last time the PKK and the KCK’s urban demonstrations, usually staged by minors, took innocent civilian lives. Earlier this month, Serap Eser, 17, who was severely injured in early November by a Molotov cocktail attack on a municipal bus, died at a hospital where she had been receiving treatment.
The attack took place on a street in İstanbul’s Küçükçekmece district. Eser was heading home from a Student Selection Examination (ÖSS) course. Her face and body were badly burned, and she was rushed to Bağcılar State Research and Teaching Hospital. Seven people suspected of being responsible for the Molotov cocktail attack were detained on Nov. 27 in an operation targeting members of the PKK. The detainees were all reported to be in their late teens.
