A young woman died in an armed attack on a pro-Kurdish HDP party office in the city of Izmir

On June 17, at around 11:00, an armed assailant named Onur Gencer entered a building located in the Konak district, in the central part of the city of Izmir, which houses numerous shops and offices. He used force to break into the office of the Regional Council of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (Halkların Demokratik Partisi-HDP), which is located on the second floor of the building.

The armed assailant took a woman named Deniz Poyraz, who is a member of the party and was in the office at the time, hostage. After killing the woman, the assailant attempted to start a fire in the office but was unsuccessful.

Around 12:00, the armed attacker was apprehended by the police officers who entered the building. The man was escorted out by the officers. After the assailant was taken out, the family of the murdered Deniz Poyraz arrived in front of the building.

Mother of dead Deniz Poyraz: Deniz gone, thousands like Deniz will come

The mother, Fehime Poyraz, was not allowed inside by police officers to identify her daughter’s body. She said the following to the media:

“They won’t let me see her, they killed her, now they won’t let me see her. I am a mother, nobody should try to make me keep quiet. The Kurdish people are always standing on their feet. I had named her after the revolutionary Deniz Gezmish. Deniz is gone, thousands like Deniz will come.”

Shortly after Fehime Poyraz uttered these words, her other daughter was allowed by the police to enter the building and recognize her sister.

In an official statement, the Izmir Provincial Governor’s Office stated that “The person O.G., firing a pistol killed the person D.P. a member of the party. The suspect has been apprehended and the case is being investigated with all its aspects.”

The killer’s first statement to police and some details about what happened

After being detained by the police, the armed assailant was taken into the custody of the political police (counter-terrorism department). There it was found that Onur Gencer is 27 years old, has an address registration in the Gaziemir district of Izmir. He stated to the police officers:

“I made several observations of the place. In May 2021, I applied for a weapons permit and obtained a temporary weapons permit. In the Kızlarağası neighborhood, I purchased a Ruger pistol from a person called Mehmet for the sum of 3 500 Turkish liras. I committed today’s act after loading 10 rounds into the pistol. My aim was to find more people there. But there was only 1 person there. I have no connections with anyone. I entered the building because I hate the PKK and started shooting at directions. Since I thought PKK members were coming here, I wouldn’t have distinguished between anyone. If there were other people inside I would shoot at them too. After the action, I put the weapon I used in my bag, and while leaving the scene, I was detained by the police.”

He also stated that he had been planning the attack since January this year.

Here is what else is contained in the initial statement given by Onur Gencer to the police. He has stated that he lives with his family in the Gaziemir district of Izmir. His father had retired as a worker from the state cigarette and alcohol factories. He has a sister who is a student. His mother has passed away. He is not a member of any party, association or trade union. He is unmarried and has not completed his regular conscription in the Turkish army. At the beginning of 2020, he started working as a health worker, at which time he was deployed in the city of Manbij, in northern Syria. In April 2021, he left his job as a health worker and has been unemployed since then.

On June 17, in the afternoon in the opposition media in Turkey, pictures of the attacker Onur Gencer appeared, in which he poses with different types of weapons, some of the photographs were taken in Syria. The photos were taken from the 27-year-old attacker’s social media accounts. They completely contradict his claim that he has “no ties to anyone.”

On the attacker’s Instagram account(onur_gencer1994), photographs taken in Syria can be seen alongside posts with profanity and nationalistic content. The pictures are tagged with locations of various towns in Syria, and some of them show military installations that are supposedly those of the Turkish army, or of Islamist mercenary gangs supported by the United States through Turkey and used against the legitimate Syrian government.

In the late afternoon, it was reported that Onur Gencer had shared a photo of the body of the murdered Deniz Poyraz taken after he committed the crime. He did so with his Whatsapp account, sharing the gruesome photograph with the text, “A piece of scum.”

Meanwhile, from the analysis done by forensic experts, it has been revealed that Deniz Poyraz was killed with 6 bullets.

Yesterday at noon, the Izmir court, imposed a permanent detention order on the murderer – Onur Gencer.

Nationalists have tried to kill Deniz Poyraz in the past

In October 2008, Deniz Poyraz was attacked by a group of female supporters of the Nationalist Movement Party(MHP). At the time of the incident, she was in a private home in one of Izmir’s neighborhoods. A group of women and youths broke into the home and attempted to throw her from the balcony, saying, “Dirty Kurds, you all support the PKK, we will kill you, we don’t want you in this neighborhood.” At the last moment, however, a neighbor intervened and managed to save Poyraz from being lynched.

Protests against the fascist attack

In many cities of Turkey, protests took place yesterday against the fascist attack on the HDP office and the murder of Deniz Poyraz. The actions were organised by the party, and included members of legal Kurdish organisations, left-wing political parties and organisations, lawyers’ associations, and the country’s leading opposition trade unions. The main focus of the protests was the fact that the attack was organized and provoked by the state and the aggressive rhetoric of Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu and other political forces supporting the current government. Actions took place in Izmir, Istanbul, Ankara, Adana, Samsun, Hatay, as well as in the cities of Ağrı, Van, Bitlis, Dersim, Diyarbakir, Malatya, Mardin, Urfa, Hakkari and İğdır, located in the Northern Kurdistan /eastern part of Turkey/.

The protesters also drew attention to two important facts:

-The constant threats and harassment against HDP members in Izmir, who have filed complaints with the police but no action has been taken.

-The attack by fascists in the town of Sincan, near the capital city Ankara, against party members and supporters monitoring the trial of party activists defendants for their participation in the 6-8 October 2014 protests against Islamic State attacks on the predominantly Kurdish-populated town of Kobane, on the border between Syria and Turkey. The attack took place just a day before the armed assault in Izmir.

Reactions against the fascist attack

Quite naturally, the HDP leaders were the first to react against the attack, strongly condemning it, saying that it was a provocation; they pointed to the government and the Ministry of Interior as the instigators and facilitators of the attack.

After news of the fascist attack reached the media, the various leftist parties and movements in Turkey also reacted by condemning the attack and expressing their support for the HDP. The main focus of the left’s statements was that what happened was a provocation aimed at creating chaos in the country and pitting people against each other.

In the first hours after the fascist attack, the Popular Front also reacted. The movement said: ‘It is a characteristic feature of fascism that when it enters a difficult period it resorts to committing mass murder. And this time we are seeing the same. Shoulder to shoulder against fascism!”

In addition to the left movement, the bourgeois political parties reacted to the event.In their statements, the bourgeois opposition said they condemned the attack, offering condolences to the relatives of the murdered Deniz Poyraz. The bourgeois parties also said that the government had a responsibility to prevent “violence and terror from becoming part of the political life of the country.”

Intellectuals and artists have also protested against the murder of Deniz Poyraz with social media posts.

As early as yesterday, calls for larger protests in the country and a direct confrontation with the fascists began to be heard among some supporters of the leftist movement in Turkey. These calls came amid calls from reformist left parties to restrain from “radical actions” and “not to take to the streets”, pointing out as the main argument that “this means giving in to the provocations of the fascists, and we should not do this.”

In the end, we can say that although some points of contact are being sought among some of the leftist organizations for a broad unity against fascist terror in Turkey, this event has once again shown the deep fault lines in the leftist movement which if not at least partially overcome will be followed by nothing other than the growth of fascist terror and leaving the popular masses without protection against it. Still, we would like to express the hope that, at least this time, a way will be found to really confront the fascist terror.