Türkiye’s Interior Ministry said on Saturday, 14 November, that one of the fugitive perpetrators in the 2015 killing of Gendarmerie Major Arslan Kulaksız has been caught, together with two people accused of helping and sheltering him. The suspect was found at the address where he had been hiding in the Tatvan district of Bitlis province in eastern Türkiye, and the two alleged accomplices were caught in the same district, A Haber, Karar, BirGün, Bursada Bugün and Sosyal TV reported, citing the ministry’s statement.
Joint gendarmerie and police operation
According to the ministry, the suspect was caught in a joint operation by the gendarmerie and the police. The operation was coordinated by the Gendarmerie General Command’s intelligence department, its counter-terrorism (TEM) department and the Muş Provincial Gendarmerie Command, with the Muş and Bitlis provincial police directorates taking part, the reports said. The ministry congratulated the units and personnel involved. Three people were caught in total; the ministry did not publicly name them in full, and their legal status after the arrests was not reported.
Killed in front of his family in 2015
Major Kulaksız was killed on 27 July 2015 in an attack carried out in front of his family, the reports said. He was the district gendarmerie commander of Malazgirt in Muş province, Karar and TGRT Haber have reported. He was shot in the evening while in his car with his wife in Malazgirt; his wife was wounded in the attack, according to Sözcü, TGRT Haber and Karar. Those outlets attributed the attack to the PKK.
The latest arrest comes more than 11 years after the killing, Karar and Sosyal TV noted.
Sources
- Jandarma Binbaşı Arslan Kulaksız’ın şehit edilmesine ilişkin operasyon: 3 şüpheli yakalandı (A Haber)
- Şehidimizin kanı yerde kalmadı: Şehit Binbaşı Arslan Kulaksız’ın faili yakalandı! (Karar)
- 2015’te öldürülen Binbaşı Arslan Kulaksız’ın firari şüphelisi yakalandı (BirGün)
- Türkiye’nin hafızasına kazınan saldırıda flaş gelişme! Ailesinin yanında şehit etmişlerdi… (Bursada Bugün)
- İçişleri Bakanlığı: Binbaşı Arslan Kulaksız’ı şehit eden bir kişi 11 yıl sonra yakalandı (Sosyal TV)
- Şehit Binbaşı Arslan Kulaksız kimdir? (Karar)
- Jandarma Binbaşı Kulaksız’ı şehit edenler şehadetinin 5’inci yıl dönümünde yakalandı (TGRT Haber)
- Malazgirt Jandarma Komutanı Binbaşı Arslan Kulaksız şehit oldu (Sözcü)
Photo: Hallacoglu13 / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
