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Turkish Extremists Take Prosecutor Hostage in Istanbul Courthouse Raid to Rescue Hostage in Istanbul Ends in Death
(about 9 hours later)
ISTANBUL — Members of a Turkish leftist terrorist group prominent during the Cold War managed to slip through tight security at Istanbul’s main courthouse Tuesday afternoon to take a well-known prosecutor hostage, the police said. Holding him at gunpoint, the group threatened to kill him if its demands were not met. ISTANBUL — A prominent Istanbul prosecutor, held for hours by two leftist extremists in the main courthouse here, was killed Tuesday evening after Turkish special forces stormed the building, setting off a barrage of gunfire and explosions, in a desperate attempt to rescue him. The militants were also killed.
With reports of gunshots being heard, Turkish special forces swarmed the court building, and negotiations with the hostage takers were continuing by late afternoon. The militants are demanding justice in the death of a teenage boy after antigovernment protests nearly two years ago, according to a statement on a website affiliated with the group. The prosecutor they abducted was overseeing that case. The risky raid on the courthouse came after hours of negotiations with the militants, who belonged to a radical group prominent during the Cold War and who had barricaded themselves in a courthouse office with a gun to the head of the prosecutor, Mehmet Selim Kiraz. The apparent motivation grew out of a politically charged case involving the death of a teenage boy in antigovernment protests nearly two years ago. Mr. Kiraz had been overseeing the case.
“We are working to bring the incident to an end without anyone getting hurt,” Selami Altinok, Istanbul’s police chief, said in a statement carried on Turkish television. “Negotiators are talking to the captors and we hope this incident will come to an end soon.” Speaking at a news conference Tuesday evening, Selami Altinok, Istanbul’s police chief, said the decision to order the raid came after officers heard gunfire inside the room where the prosecutor was being held.
As the drama unfolded Tuesday afternoon, news channels shifted attention from what had dominated coverage all morning: a power failure across the country that shut down subways, trams and traffic lights in Istanbul. The blackout, which Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said could have been the work of terrorists, prompted speculation in the Turkish media that the assailants were able to enter the courthouse because the metal detectors were not working. “We carried out negotiations for six hours,” he said. “But our security forces launched an operation after gunshots were heard while the terrorists were on the phone to the negotiators.”
Later in the afternoon, as the lights were coming back on around the country, the Turkish authorities imposed a ban on news reporting at the courthouse, leaving people to follow Twitter or other social media for updates. In the days ahead, there will most likely be second-guessing of the decision to order the raid, although there was little of that in the local news media on Tuesday evening, as the government had imposed a news blackout as the siege unfolded.
The drama evoked Turkey’s old ghosts, and its newer traumas. The Marxist group that took responsibility for infiltrating the courthouse, the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front, has its origins in the tumultuous 1970s, when political violence roiled the country and Turkey was a central arena for the intrigues of the Cold War. That the group’s motive was apparently related to the sweeping antigovernment demonstrations of 2013, set off by plans to raze Gezi Park in Istanbul and replace it with a shopping mall, underscored the unfinished legacy of those protests. At the time, the protests represented the greatest challenge to date to the Islamist government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, then the prime minister and now the president. Metin Feyzioglu, the head of Turkey’s bar association, rushed to the scene in the afternoon, saying he had prayed with Mr. Kiraz’s wife. He said it was too soon to criticize the government’s handling of the crisis but added, “We don’t know who shot first.”
The militant group, which was responsible for a suicide attack at the United States Embassy in Ankara, the capital, in 2013, posted a photo on Twitter showing a gun being pointed at the head of Mehmet Selim Kiraz, the prosecutor overseeing the case of Berkin Elvan, a 15-year-old boy who was struck by a tear-gas canister during the Gezi protests and died last year after nine months in a coma. The group’s yellow-and-red banner was seen in the background. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking during a visit to Bucharest, Romania, said late Tuesday: “I congratulate the police for carrying out the operation. They did what needed to be done after hearing the gunshots.”
With Islamic terrorism shaking the region, Tuesday’s attack felt quintessentially Turkish. “I think Turkey might be the only Middle Eastern country having a Cold War-era militant group that undertakes terrorist attacks,” Ragip Soylu, a correspondent for Sabah, a pro-government daily newspaper, wrote in a message on Twitter. Officials said the assailants had posed as lawyers, who are often not subject to the rigorous security procedures applied to ordinary citizens when entering the courthouse, and had hidden their weapons under robes. “Going forward, the way lawyers enter the palace of justice, and the way other workers enter the palace of justice, must be reviewed,” Mr. Erdogan said.
Among the militants’ demands were that police officers involved in Berkin’s death confess on live television and that the officers be held responsible in court. As the drama continued Tuesday afternoon, news channels shifted attention from what had dominated coverage all morning: a power failure across the country that had shut down subways, trams and traffic lights in Istanbul, causing chaos and traffic jams.
In death, Berkin became a potent symbol to the largely youthful and secular Gezi protesters, sparking a new round of demonstrations last year after he died. But he also became a rallying point for Turkey’s far-left groups, including the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front, that are also opposed to the government. Now that the group has carried out an attack inspired by Berkin’s death, it is likely to encourage the divisive rhetoric of Mr. Erdogan, who last year angered his opponents by calling the teenager a terrorist. Later in the afternoon, as the lights were coming back, the Turkish authorities imposed the news blackout, leaving people to follow Twitter or other social media for updates.
As the hostage crisis unfolded, Sami Elvan, the boy’s father, said in a statement carried by the Turkish news media: “My son died but I don’t want any other person to die. The prosecutor must be released. Blood cannot be washed away with blood.” The crisis evoked Turkey’s ghosts and more recent traumas. The Marxist group that took responsibility for infiltrating the courthouse, the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front, has its origins in the tumultuous 1970s, when political violence roiled the country and Turkey was a central arena for Cold War intrigues. That the group’s motive was apparently related to the sweeping antigovernment demonstrations of 2013, set off by plans to raze Gezi Park in Istanbul and replace it with a shopping mall, underscored the unfinished legacy of those protests. At the time, the demonstrations represented the greatest challenge to date to the Islamist government of Mr. Erdogan, then the prime minister and now the president.
The militant group is Marxist and also vehemently anti-American. It was responsible for a suicide attack at the United States Embassy in Ankara, the capital, in 2013, and is on the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations. The group has attacked other American diplomatic and military facilities in the past, and last year the United States announced rewards of $3 million each for information about the whereabouts of the group’s top three leaders.
The group on Tuesday afternoon posted a photo on Twitter showing a gun being pointed at the head of Mr. Kiraz, the prosecutor who had been overseeing the case of Berkin Elvan, a 15-year-old boy who was struck by a tear-gas canister during the Gezi protests and died last year after nine months in a coma. The group’s yellow and red banner, adorned with a hammer and sickle, hung from a wall, and man wearing a black beret stood over Mr. Kiraz.
With Islamic terrorism shaking the region, Tuesday’s attack seemed quintessentially Turkish. “I think Turkey might be the only Middle Eastern country having a Cold War-era militant group that undertakes terrorist attacks,” Ragip Soylu, a correspondent for Sabah, a pro-government daily newspaper, wrote on Twitter.
A website associated with the group said that militants were demanding that police officers involved in Berkin’s death confess on live television.
Berkin became a potent symbol to the largely youthful and secular Gezi protesters, and his death last year sparked a new round of demonstrations. He also became a rallying point for Turkey’s far-left groups, including the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front, that oppose the government. A small group of left-wing protesters stood near the courthouse on Tuesday, chanting slogans demanding accountability for the death of Berkin. Now that the group has carried out an attack inspired by Berkin’s death, it is likely to encourage the divisive rhetoric of Mr. Erdogan, who last year angered his opponents by calling the boy a terrorist.
As the hostage crisis proceeded, Sami Elvan, the boy’s father, issued a statement carried by the Turkish news media. “My son died, but I don’t want any other person to die,” he said. “The prosecutor must be released. Blood cannot be washed away with blood.”
Mr. Elvan arrived at the courthouse in the afternoon in an effort to find a peaceful resolution and, according to Mr. Feyzioglu, the bar association head, spoke on the telephone for 40 minutes with one of the militants, urging him to release the prosecutor and surrender.
Later, after the bloody conclusion to the standoff, Mr. Elvan was quoted in the Turkish media as saying: “We fought hard for nonviolence. We are heartbroken.”