From Cold Shoulder to Raging Inferno

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 4 March 2019)



They came to Istanbul for work - Murat Kayacan (17) from Ağrı,
Muhammet Gür (23) and Yunus Akyüz (20) from Siirt, Eren Ersin
Büker (25) from Manisa, Ramazan Demir (23) from  Diyarbakır and
Özkan Elmas (24) from Hatay.  The men lived in a second-floor
flat in the Temel Apartımanı building on Jurnal Street in the
Asmalımescit neighborhood of Beyoğlu, Istanbul, and they all
worked at nearby cafés and bars.

Last week Elmas argued with his housemates, who began to give
him the cold shoulder.  Elmas decided to return to Hatay and bought
an airline ticket for a flight yesterday.  At 9 o'clock yesterday
morning, while his housemates were sleeping after completing
their night shifts, Elmas set a fire in the flat, called the fire department
and then rushed to the airport.


                         Lone survivor Ramazan Demir.

Only Demir was able to flee the fire.  Because of bars on the windows,
the 4 others were trapped inside and died.  Demir told police that
Elmas had started the fire.  Checking Elmas's phone records, police
saw that it was Elmas who had called firefighters.  His phone signal
was detected in Hatay, where Elmas was taken into custody. 


                                 The vengeful arsonist.