Background
In 2015 in Ankara, three killings and six attempted killings were assessed as having been carried out in the same manner. Hasan Saygın, Muhsin Demirdirek and Mustafa Çağmaoğlu died in these attacks, and six other people survived. For years the incidents stayed in separate files, with no perpetrator identified.
What linked the cases was the similar manner and circumstances of the attacks. That resemblance later became the basis for reading the files together.
The files are reviewed again
The Department for Investigating Unsolved Crimes, set up in April 2026, took the files up again. Witness statements, call-detail and cell-tower records, and a suspect's movements at the time of the incidents were weighed together. A similar incident in Antalya was also included in the review.
According to official statements, the fact that the attacks stopped after the suspect left Ankara at the end of 2015 was treated as significant in assessing the evidence.
Investigation and legal process
Justice Minister Akın Gürlek announced in August 2026 that nine files had been linked to the same person. The suspect was publicly identified only by the initials M.Ö. and was already in prison over a different killing. He gave a new statement on 7 August 2026 and was remanded in custody on three counts of intentional killing and six counts of attempted intentional killing.
A remand order is not a conviction. Because proceedings are ongoing and there is no final verdict, he can only be described as a suspect.
Where it stands today
The case stands out as an example of how bringing long-separated files together can yield results. For the victims' families, it is the first official answer after roughly eleven years of uncertainty. The progress of the proceedings continues to be followed.