Özgür Özel, leader of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), was struck by a bystander while exiting an event on Sunday (May 4) in Istanbul.
Özel had been attending an event at Istanbul’s Atatürk Cultural Center commemorating parliamentary representative Sırrı Süreyya Önder, who had passed away on Saturday.
The attacker was identified as Selçuk Tengioğlu, a 66-year-old with a criminal record including the 2004 murder of two of his children. Tengioğlu had been released from prison on parole in 2020.
Security at Sunday’s event quickly subdued and arrested the suspect immediately after the attack.
Statements condemning the attacker were released Sunday by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and other politicians.
In a statement following his Sunday arrest, Tengioğlu said:
“I had previously applied for a meal card from the CHP but I was rejected because I was not a party member. For this reason I have been angry, and I’ve been holding this anger inside of me for a long time.”
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| Turkey’s opposition leader attacked while exiting commemoration event |
Details of 2004 homicide come to light
Details that emerged following Sunday’s attack indicate that the suspect’s wife left him in 2004 after which an enraged Tengioğlu killed two of the couple’s five children in Turkey’s southeastern city of Iskenderun. A third child managed to escape by jumping from a second story window, breaking a foot in the process.
After the harrowing details of Tengioğlu’s criminal past came to light, many expressed outrage at his 2020 parole.
In a social media post Sunday, Turkish Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç responded to concerns about Tengioğlu’s 2020 parole, saying:
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“In 2005, the AKP [Turkey’s ruling Justice & Development Party] introduced major criminal justice reforms that increased penalties and prison sentences for offenders. However, because the suspect in question committed crimes in 2004 prior to the passage of this legislation, he was eligible for earlier parole.”
On Monday, video footage emerged showing Tengioğlu following Özel and his entourage suspiciously prior to the attack at Sunday’s event.
According to a report from journalist İsmail Saymaz, Tengioğlu had been receiving social welfare benefits from the CHP-controlled Beyoğlu municipality in Istanbul for nine months prior to Sunday’s attack.
Written/translated for Medyascope by Leo Kendrick
