URFA - The Ministry of Interior announced that İlhami Ballı, who ordered the massacres in Ankara and Suruç in which 137 people lost their lives and was "wanted" with a red notice, lives in the Harabat village of Idlib, which is under Turkish control. It was stated that Deniz Büyükçelebi, one of the fugitive suspects of the massacres, is in prison in Damascus.

 

 

33 people died in the suicide bombing carried out by an ISIS militant in the Suruç district of Urfa in July 20, 2015. The 33 young people from Socialist Youth Associations Federation (SGDF) gathered in the Amara Culture Center to bring toys to the children in Kobané, trying to rebuild itself after ISIS. At the final hearing of the case in which the ISIS militants were on trial, held on October 22, 2021,  the only detained defendant Yakup Şahin was sentenced to 34 times aggravated life imprisonment, while the files the fugitive defendants Deniz Büyükçelebi and İlhami Bali was sperated. The second hearing of the file will be held tomorrow at the Urfa 5th High Criminal Court. In its first hearing, held on February 18, the court wrote 27 different warrants to many organizations in line with the demands of the lawyers.

 

MINISTRY OF INTERIOR KNOWS WHERE HE IS

 

The General Directorate of Security of the Ministry of Interior responded to the court's warrant regarding the latest current status of the fugitive suspects. In the answer given by the Directorate based on intelligence reports, it was noted that Ilhami Balı, the number one fugitive suspect of the Ankara Massacre in which 104 people died, and the Suruç Massacre, in which 33 young people lost their lives, was seen in Harabat village of Idlib, which is under the control of Turkey and the groups it supports, in May 2021. Previously, ISIS leaders Abu Bakr Al-Bexdadi and Abu Ibrahim Al-Qurayshi were killed in Idlib in an operation carried out by the USA.

 

THE CITY WHERE ISIS RUNS WILD 

 

The answer sent by the General Directorate of Security to the Urfa 5th High Criminal Court regarding the latest situation and last location of the fugitive suspects İlhami Balı and Deniz Büyükçelebi is as follows: “As a result of the work carried out in the records of our Department regarding the requested matters; Informative information that the person named Deniz Büyükçelebi was captured by the Regime forces in Syria and detained in Syria/Damascus as of August 2019, and that the person named İlhami Balı was staying around the Harabat Village of Syria/İdlib as of May 2021, and both individuals are on the wanted list for terrorists with the charge of being a member of a terrorist organisation.

 

Serdil İzol, one of the attorneys of the Justice Platform for Suruç, evaluated the documents added to the case file in response to the negotiations and called for participation in the second hearing of the case.

 

'WE KNOW WHERE THEY ARE'

 

Stating that in the first hearing held on February 18, 2022 for the fugitive defendants, the court board wrote many interim decisions and wrote minutes to many institutions, İzol noted that the institutions did not respond to those minutes. Reminding that Balı, the main suspect of the Ankara and Suruç massacres, which was added to the file beforehand, was treated at the State Hospital in the Cihanbeyli district of Konya in 2016, despite the warrant against him with a red notice, İzol said: "They know where he is now. The wives of İlhami Balı and Deniz Büyükçelebi who must be the defendants in our case but heard as witnesses, told that their husbands were dead. The latest intelligence on the other hand, suggests that they are alive and in Idlib.The Intelligence service knows where these people are but they sent different information before. The Intelligence service had this intelligence before but they did not send it to the court even they were compelled to."

 

CALL TO HEARING

 

Reminding that Hülya Balı, the wife of İlhami Balı, was acquitted by the Supreme Court "despite meeting the conditions for being a member of a terrorist organisation", İzol continued: "Democratic mass organisations have been followers of the Suruç and Ankara Station massacre since the first day. We told the previous court committee how the massacre was committed with all the evidence. Although we submitted all the evidence to the court so that the perpetrators could be punished, in the previous trial, a defendant (Yakup Şahin) was tried to be sentenced without discussing the evidence. No action was taken regarding who lost the images in the file. The decision was made without an effective investigation. We will be the followers of these cases, and everyone who believes in democracy and human's rights should do so. This case continues, and we contimnue to expose dark relations behind it one by one. We call on to everyone to participate in the next hearing to be held in Hilvan Prison Campus. We will do our absolute best to reveal the perpetrators."

 

 

MA / Emrullah Acar