Murder of former Grey Wolves leader divides Turkey’s nationalists
Questions raised this week about the December shooting of Sinan Ates have placed Erdogan’s allied MHP party under the spotlight as elections loom.
ISTANBUL — The murder of a prominent Turkish nationalist nearly a month ago has cast a shadow over politics, with the scandal threatening to engulf the ruling party’s ally as the country prepares for elections in May.
Sinan Ates was shot dead as he left his office in Ankara’s Cankaya district on Dec. 30 by a gunman on a motorcycle. The 38-year-old was a former president of the Ulku Ocaklari, better known as the Grey Wolves, an ultra-nationalist group tied to the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and long associated with political violence.
The killing has proved highly embarrassing for MHP leader Devlet Bahceli, whose party has an electoral alliance with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Leaving his party’s parliamentary meeting on Tuesday, Bahceli was questioned by a journalist about the murder. The reporter was shoved aside as Bahceli told her, “Mind your business.”
