Turkish court drops investigation into MHP politicians in murder of former Grey Wolves head Sinan Ateş

Duvar English

Ayşe Ateş, the wife of murdered former Grey Wolves (“Ülkü Ocakları”) head Sinan Ateş, on Jan. 22 announced that an ongoing investigation regarding 22 people was dropped regarding her husband’s murder. 

Previously, an Ankara court on Oct. 2 sentenced five defendants to aggravated life in prison for the assassination, including the shooter Eray Özyağcı.

Ateş was assassinated by two people on a motorcycle while leaving a building on Dec. 30, 2022, in the capital Ankara. 

The investigation into 22 people regarding their involvement in the murder was previously separated from the main case.

Sinan Ateş’s family has been accusing some far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) seniors of the murder. The Grey Wolves, operating inside Turkey for decades, is regarded as the armed wing of the MHP.

Ateş was the head of the group between 2019 and 2020.

During a hearing of the case back in July, Ayşe Ateş said, “My husband told me, ‘İzzet Ulvi Yönter and Semih Yalçın instructed Ahmet Yiğit Yıldırım and Olcay Kılavuz to kill me. They are looking for a killer’.”

İzzet Ulvi Yönter has been an MHP MP for four terms, whereas Semih Yalçın is the deputy leader of the MHP. Olcay Kılavuz was an MHP MP at the time of the murder, reportedly involved in the case. Ahmet Yiğit Yıldırım is the current head of the Grey Wolves.

Ayşe Ateş on Jan. 22 announced that the court dropped the second investigation into 22 people, including Kılavuz and Yıldırım. 

“With this decision, questions such as why Sinan Ateş was murdered and who ordered his murder remain unanswered,” she said. 

She also called on President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and said, “The two armed bodyguards you assigned to me are no longer of any use. What would those who had Sinan Ateş murdered a kilometer away from your office not do to Ayşe Ateş and her two daughters with the courage they have gained since then?”

The court has been criticized for covering the political ties of the murder. 

For example, the indictment did not seek the motives of the shooter and his helpers for instigating the murder.

It also did not include that Tolgahan Demirbaş was detained in the house of former MHP deputy Olcay Kılavuz. 

Demirbaş received an aggravated life sentence for “abetting intentional killing by design.” He is a former executive of the Grey Wolves.

The shooter Özyağcı previously said he shot Ateş at the request of Doğukan Çep, who also received an aggravated life sentence. It was also claimed that Tolgahan Demirbaş had been searching for Sinan Ateş's address information and had asked for information about Sinan Ateş from the police, the national intelligence executives, and public officials.

He also allegedly kidnapped Özyağcı after the murder and took him to the house of then-MHP deputy Olcay Kılavuz.

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