Ayşe Ateş, widow of slain Grey Wolves chairman Sinan Ateş, met with Turkey’s main opposition leader Özgür Özel Monday at the Republican People’s Party (CHP) headquarters in Ankara.
Following Ayşe Ateş’s post-meeting announcement, Turkey’s Presidential Communications Ministry announced that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan would also meet with the Grey Wolves chairman’s widow in the coming days. In recent statements, Ateş has alleged that attempts to arrange a meeting between her and the president have been obstructed by Erdoğan’s main coalition partner, National Action Party (MHP) chairman Devlet Bahçeli.
Statement from Ayşe Ateş
Following her meeting with main opposition leader and CHP chairman Özgür Özel, Ayşe Ateş made a statement alleging that interference from Bahçeli had delayed her meeting with President Erdoğan:
“I’ve been trying to arrange a meeting with the president for about a year through both formal and informal channels…I think Bahçeli caught wind of our planned meeting with the president and reached out to him directly. I suspect this is the reason why we have still been unable to arrange a meeting.”
Following Ateş’s statement Monday, Erdoğan’s communications minister announced the president would meet with the Grey Wolves chairman’s widow ‘in the coming days’.
Regarding her late husband’s icy relationship with the CHP during his lifetime, Ateş said in her statement:
“During his life, Sinan had sometimes harsh things to say about Mr Özel and Mr Kılıçdaroğlu [former CHP chairman]. Despite this, the CHP has really taken us under their wing. I’d like to thank the entire CHP family.”
Regarding how the MHP has been unhelpful in tracking down her husband’s killers, Ateş said:
“Those whom Sinan used to regard as enemies have become our friends. Those who were his friends have become our enemies. We’ve had to experience this in a very painful way.”
December 2022 assassination
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Sinan Ateş was killed on December 30, 2022 in Ankara, and his murder remains unsolved despite numerous detentions and an investigation into the murder by the Ankara Governor’s Office. Over the past year and a half, numerous opposition politicians from the CHP and İYİ Party have issued public calls demanding Ateş’s killers be brought to justice.
Ateş was assassinated when two assailants on a motorcycle gunned him down and immediately fled the scene. A friend accompanying Ateş at the time was also injured in the incident. In the days following the killing, a blurry photo was released showing the two assailants fleeing the scene. Nevertheless, attempts to find those responsible for his death have yet to bear fruit.
Early allegations following the murder connected Ateş’s assassination to a land dispute in Istanbul’s Maltepe district several years prior, but these claims have remained nothing more than rumors as the second anniversary of Ateş’s death approaches.
Grey Wolves
Sinan Ateş served as the chairman of the Grey Wolves organization from 2019 until his death in late 2022. The Grey Wolves (Ülkü Ocakları) are a far-right ultranationalist organization variously described as a paramilitary group, youth movement, or mafia organization with close ties to the MHP.
Having played a major role in Turkey’s political violence during the 1970s which saw bloody clashes with left-wing groups, the groups actions have moderated in recent years under the leadership of MHP chairman Devlet Bahçeli, where they are often referred to as the MHP’s youth wing.
Written/translated for Medyascope by Leo Kendrick
