Two people were killed and 10 others wounded on Dec. 16 of last year after Turan Bilen, a storeowner, opened fire on demonstrators protesting the closure of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) by the Constitutional Court on Dec. 11, 2009. The case was heard at the Samsun 1st High Criminal Court for security reasons. Turan Bilen’s brother Metin Bilen was also accused of involvement in the killings. The family of Necmi Oral, one of the victims, was present at Monday’s hearing. Deputies Ahmet Türk and Aysel Tuğluk from the now-defunct DTP and who were also banned from politics by the Constitutional Court’s closure decision attended the hearing as well as Sırrı Sakık and Nuri Yaman from the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), the DTP’s successor. After the hearing, Türk was attacked by a man named İsmail Çelik while he was leaving the courthouse and had his nose broken as a result of Çelik’s punches.
Turan Bilen said he and his brother were going to be burned alive by the protesters if they had not opened fire to scare them. He asserted that the protesters wanted them to close down their store. “I am a man committed to my homeland and people. I therefore kept my store open by exercising my democratic right to do so. Protesters surrounded and threw stones and Molotov cocktails at our store,” he said, adding that his brother Metin had nothing to do with the random shooting and it was only himself who had opened fire with a Kalashnikov rifle given to him because he was a volunteer village guard.
Oral’s father Faruk Oral said he had witnessed the entire incident but had previously said he had watched the occurrence on TV, an inconsistency that was pointed out to him in court at Monday’s hearing. Refusing to grant the prosecution’s request for a change of venue to Muş, the judges ruled to keep the trial in Samsun. The second hearing is scheduled for June 8.
