Istanbul's governorate announced the bullets that hit the offices of the Good Party (IP) in the metropolis on Thursday were fired by a construction foreman. He has since been detained as a suspect.
The suspect, identified by M.E., told police after his detention that he fired his gun randomly to scare away “thieves” at the construction site. The governorate said that the criminal investigation showed bullet fragments found at the scene matched the bullets from M.E.’s licensed pistol.
The incident sparked outrage ahead of the May 14 elections, while IP chairperson Meral Akşener implied that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan incited an attack on her party.
M.E. has told the police that he did not deliberately target the party building when he fired shots on a corner of the construction site near the building on a busy Istanbul thoroughfare on Thursday night.
He was released after interrogation after he told prosecutors he was carrying a gun as protection against occasional thefts at the construction site and confronted the suspected thieves again at the time of the shooting. He said he never thought the bullets would hit the IP offices, which were at a different elevation than the construction site.
Parties condemned the incident in a politically charged atmosphere, while Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AK Party) also was among other parties expressing concern about the incident.
Erdoğan hit out at Akşener on Sunday as the latter said the incident came after Erdoğan “threatened” her. The president said at a public event that Akşener was “unashamed” of accusing him of being behind the attack.
“Shame on you! (I was) never involved in such an immoral act in my life but I don’t know about your past,” he said.
The president said the Interior Ministry found the perpetrator and called upon Akşener to apologize for accusing him of inciting the attack.
“(But) you cannot apologize, it is a matter of character,” Erdoğan said.