Urban Renewal Meeting Massacre

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(HaberTürk Newspaper, 7 January 2018)


"When they wouldn't include a second bathroom, I lost it!"

In Ereğli district of Konya province, an incredible massacre shook
the town yesterday.  Contractor A.S. and his partner E.K. held a
meeting with the residents of a building to agree on the demolition
of the building and its reconstruction, within the scope of Ereğli's
urban renewal program.  The meeting was held at the contractor's office.

Cem Küçüktürk (48), who is a resident of the same building but who
opposed the project, stormed the 10-person meeting with a pump-action
rifle, killing building residents Şaban Kurtsal, his older brother İsmail
Kurtsal and İbrahim Gök.  Taken to the hospital in serious condition
was Müslüm Gök.   Contractors A.S. and E.K. managed to escape the
massacre through their office's back door.

Küçüktürk was able to leave the scene before police arrived and next
targeted realtor Savaş Kaynak in the Akhüyük neighborhood.  After
killing Kaynak, Küçüktürk called police to say that "I've killed someone.
Come and I'll surrender."  Police recovered two pump-action rifles
and one hunting rifle from Küçüktürk's car and he was taken into custody.

In his statement to police, Küçüktürk said that "the contractors kept coming
to our building to persuade us to have it torn down and rebuilt.  At first,
all us residents opposed the idea but then some of the residents agreed
with the contractors.  I got angry about this and told these residents to
change their minds, but they wouldn't.  After the meeting, I went after
Kaynak, the realtor, because he put the residents in touch with the
contractors in the first place.  I threw his body in an irrigation canal.
I was so mad that everyone agreed with the contractors that I lost my
senses."

It turned out that Küçüktürk had given an indication of his intentions on
Twitter 10 days ago when he wrote "we'll see what their mothers have
brought into this world.  You know very well that the match has gone
on far too long."



Ereğli district is in far southeastern Konya province.