The Dedeoğlu family, who lived in the Meram district of Konya province, Turkey, had been subjected to threats by their racist neighbours for the last 15 years. Last May, a group of 60 people attacked the family and some members of the family were seriously injured. The threats continued despite the Dedeoğlu family submitting complaints to the authorities, supported by hospital reports, and on 30 July 2021, seven members of the family were brutally murdered in their home by their racist neighbours. Yaşar, Barış, Serpil, Serap, İpek, Metin and Sibel Dedeoğlu all lost their lives.

Erol Şan, cousin of Yaşar Dedeoğlu, one of those murdered during the attack in Konya, spoke to Mesopotamia Agency and gave detailed information about the day the incident happened.

He stated that he had been with members of the family before the attack happened, and that the murderer visited the family as a guest and shook hands before he killed them. He also confirms that as Kurds living in the region, they too had been threatened by fascist neighbours in the past.

“We have been living here for 30 years, we are living in among these fascists in the same neighbourhood. There was a fight here two months ago, members of the family were seriously injured. I said to my cousin Yaşar, ‘Let’s sell the house’, but he refused, ‘I definitely will not sell the house, I will not bow down to them’”.

Şan claimed that the attacker visited the family house as a guest and shot Yasar Dedeoğlu straight after shaking hands with him, and that this has been caught on video.

“The girls were sitting and drinking coffee inside. He went inside and shot the girls in the head while they were drinking coffee. He fired a total of 20 bullets into their heads,” he said.

Family lawyers confirmed that the autopsy report notes that 20 bullets had been fired at the seven members of the Dedeoğlu family. The lawyers also shared the information that the majority of the bullets came from close range, and were either in the head or in the neck.

Family Lawyer Abdurrahman Karabulut spoke to MA and said that the killer was in contact with the people who had attacked the family previously, in May.

Meanwhile in the statement made by the Konya Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, it was announced that 10 people had been detained in relation to the attack that took place yesterday, but despite the statements of the family members, the Prosecutor’s Office also claimed that the attack was the continuation of a disagreement between two families that has been ongoing for 11 years.

The Office of the Chief Public Prosecutor also stated that efforts to capture the perpetrator are ongoing.

In May 2021, the Dedeoğlu family were previously attacked by the same people, but 10 of the 12 arrested were released one after the other. A “protection order” was also given to 10 of the detained assailants.

After the massacre, the professional history of Engin Dinç, Chief of Police for Konya Province, came into question again, as he is notorious for the role he has played during some of the most important murders in Turkey.

MA wrote that Dinç was the head of the Intelligence Department in Trabzon in 2007 when the Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was killed, and he had advance knowledge of this. He was also serving at the time of the murder of the priest Santoro in 2006. Amd it is also known that he delayed providing intelligence in relation to the Ankara Massacre of 10 October 2015 in which 109 people died.

Human Rights Organisation (İHD) Co-Chair Eren Keskin, who had been in contact with the Dedeoğlu family members for 3 months, made the following statement on the subject:

“Konya police chief Engin Dinç is an intelligence officer who was previously tried in the Hrant Dink case. He should resign or be fired. He couldn’t protect a family.”