Turkish police have detained 25 people in a renewed investigation into a 2009 helicopter crash that killed nationalist politician Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu and five others, with prosecutors now examining allegations of premeditated murder and membership in an armed terrorist organization, Justice Minister Akın Gürlek announced on Monday.
Yazıcıoğlu, the founder and leader of the far-right, nationalist-Islamist Grand Unity Party (BBP), was traveling between campaign events ahead of Turkey’s March 2009 local elections when his chartered helicopter crashed near Göksun in the southern province of Kahramanmaraş on March 25, 2009.
The crash killed Yazıcıoğlu, three BBP officials, the pilot and an İhlas News Agency reporter.
The case has been the subject of controversy for more than 17 years due to failures in the search-and-rescue operation, the removal of GPS navigation equipment from the wreckage and allegations that public officials interfered in the subsequent investigation.
Reporter İsmail Güneş contacted emergency services after the crash and said he was seriously injured, but rescue teams did not locate the wreckage for approximately 47 hours. His body was found separately five days later.
Yazıcıoğlu’s family and political associates have long claimed that his death should be investigated as a possible assassination rather than treated solely as an accident.
No court has conclusively established the cause and circumstances of the crash.
Gürlek said investigators had identified 29 suspects accused of establishing, leading or belonging to an armed terrorist organization and involvement in premeditated murder.
Police conducted simultaneous raids at 30 locations in 10 provinces and detained 25 suspects. Two others were already in prison and two were abroad, Gürlek said.
The minister did not identify the suspects or disclose what evidence had prompted prosecutors to examine the deaths as possible murders.
The ANKA news agency reported that former police chief Dursun Özmen was among those detained.
Özmen was previously sentenced to two years in prison for abuse of office over a false information note prepared after the crash claiming that Yazıcıoğlu had survived with a broken leg and was being taken to a hospital.
ANKA identified the two suspects already in prison as Davut Uçum and Aydın Özsıcak, who were convicted due to their alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accuses the Gülen movement of orchestrating an attempted coup in July 2016 and designates it a terrorist organization. The movement denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
Several public officials have been prosecuted over failures in the rescue operation, the handling of evidence and alleged interference in the investigation.
Separate proceedings also examined the removal of navigation equipment from the wreckage and claims that Gülen-linked officials attempted to steer the inquiry using irregular procedures and fabricated evidence.
No final court ruling has established a direct link between the Gülen movement and either the crash or the deaths.
The latest operation marks the first major step in an investigation directly examining whether Yazıcıoğlu and the five others were deliberately killed.
Prosecutors have not publicly explained how the 29 suspects were allegedly involved.
Yazıcıoğlu was a leading figure in Turkey’s ultranationalist movement and previously headed the Grey Wolves, which emerged from Turkey’s nationalist movement and have long been associated with ultranationalist activism.
He spent five-and-a-half years in prison following the 1980 military coup and was later acquitted. He founded the BBP in 1993 as a nationalist-Islamist alternative to the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).