Onur Gencer, 27, who on Thursday admittedly killed a woman in an attack on the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) office in İzmir, had posted photos of himself carrying assault rifles and made threats against HDP members, calling them “Armenian spawn.”
The HDP is the Turkish parliament’s third-largest party, which the government is trying to close over alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The party directed its anger over the attack at the government.
“After months of attacks by the ruling party and interior ministry and families being told to organize outside our provincial offices to spark provocations, there was an attack today at 10:30 a.m. on our İzmir provincial building,” it said.
Gencer, currently under arrest, claimed to be acting on his own, saying in a statement: “I am not affiliated with any group. I entered the building because I hate the PKK and fired at random.” He threatened the HDP in a social media post, expressing his resentment and promising to “make them bleed.”
The pro-Kurdish party identified the victim as Deniz Poyraz, a party official in the western province of İzmir where the morning attack occurred.turkishminute
Cinayetin ayrıntıları geliyor… 3 silahlı içeri giriyor. O sırada tesadüfen sadece mutfakta çalışan genç HDP'li kadın Deniz Poyraz var. Onu ateş ederek öldürüyorlar. Binayı yakmaya çalışıyorlar. 2 saldırgan kaçıyor. Yakalanan Onur Gencer'in fb profili çok şey anlatıyor… https://t.co/y4w30sw4Gk pic.twitter.com/bQ4DpxUVxP
— Ertuğrul Kürkçü (@ekurkcuHDP) June 17, 2021