Suspected killer of Kurdish family in Turkey arrested

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The suspect in the armed attack that killed seven members of a Kurdish family in Turkey’s Anatolia region last week, has been arrested, Turkish media reported.

The Dedeoglu family were targeted for being Kurdish, and had been attacked previously in May, AFP news agency reported at the time of their killing. 

The family said the May attack was the work of a Turkish ultranationalist group called the Grey Wolves, and may have involved as many as 60 people.

They had feared for their lives after those alleged attackers were set free.

BIA net reported that the suspect, Mehmet Altun, told police he went to the Dedeoglu home in Konya to tell them to withdraw the criminal complaint about the May incident.

"We went there for reconciliation. As they reacted and walked up to me, I shot them all dead,” Altun reportedly said after being taken into custody on Thursday.

“In order to leave no traces behind, I shot again while they were lying on the floor, and I wanted to set the house on fire so that the camera footage would be deleted," he said.

Similar racist attacks on Kurds have occurred in Konya as well as Afyon, Ankara, the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) said last week.

Turkish authorities deny that there are racist motivations for the incidents.