Bingöl assassination was attempt at massacre

2015-06-05 11:44:22

BİNGÖL (DİHA) - New information indicates that the assassination of HDP Bingöl driver Hamdullah Öğe was a planned and organized attack that may have intended to bring down more than one victim.

35-year-old Hamdullah Öğe had been using his own car for the last two months to support the Peoples' Democratic Party's (HDP) election campaign by touring the area broadcasting elections announcements. On Wednesday night, Öğe was forced from the car, broad to a rocky area near the road and executed.

That night, Öğe was returning from elections work with eight other HDP activists. He left the district center of Karlıova, heading south for the village of Karahamza, where he is registered to vote. He dropped off the elections volunteers at three villages along the way. He was just two kilometers from his destination when he was assassinated. If the other eight activists had not left the vehicle at the previous villages, they too would have been assassinated at the ambush set up for the HDP car.

Investigations are ongoing into the attack, but early reports indicate that the rugged terrain of the area was a convenient place for an ambush. The car was stopped at a location visible from a hidden rocky site above the road, at a point where the car would have been forced to reduce its speed due to the curves of the road. The early reports point to the likelihood of the ambush being a carefully planned operation.

Family found neither Öğe nor any bloodstains inside vehicle

When Öğe's relatives first arrived at the scene, they found the headlights of the vehicle still on. The front left tire of the vehicle had exploded and bullet holes were visible on the front and left sides of the vehicle. The vehicle had apparently been raked with bullets in what HDP Bingöl MP İdris Baluken called "a message." The family found neither Öğe nor any bloodstains inside the vehicle. The keys were still in the ignition and the handbrake was pulled.

Süleyman Tiryaki, one of the HDP activists who escaped the same fate as Hamdullah that night, recalled that they had tried to convince Öğe to stay in their village of Serpmekaya, where they stopped just two kilometers away from the scene of the attack. Öğe said he was tired and wanted to go home.

Tiryaki heard the sound of gunshots before he had stepped over the threshold of his house. He immediately called Öğe, but didn't get a response. When they called Öğe's family in the village of Karahamza, the family said he wasn't there yet. At this point Tiryaki and his cousin Şahabettin Özen set out towards the direction of the sounds of the gunshots. When they arrived, they found Öğe's family already there.

The group, seeing no trace of Öğe, called friends to the scene to help search the area. Eventually, they found bloodstains around 30 meters from the vehicle.

'So many bullets into his back that even rocks underneath him were shattered'

"There was no blood inside or near the car. The rocks around the place he was shot were all covered in blood," he said. "They had shot so many bullets into his back that the even rocks underneath him were shattered."

Although more than 36 hours have passed since the killing, which in every way resembles a planned assassination, there has been no official announcement from any Bingöl state officials, police or prosecutors. There has still been no release of security footage from the town centers through which the attackers would have had to flee after the attack.

(cm/nt)