Assassination of Deryan Aktert

Background

Deryan Aktert served as the chairman of the Dicle district branch of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), having been elected to the position on 17 November 2014. His tenure coincided with the collapse of a peace process aimed at resolving the Kurdish–Turkish conflict, a broader confrontation between the Turkish state and Kurdish insurgent groups, principally the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). In the aftermath of that breakdown, numerous AKP-affiliated governors and politicians in Kurdish-majority cities were reportedly threatened with death and pressured to resign by the PKK; those who declined to step down faced assassination attempts, some of which succeeded.

Aktert was described as a repeated target of threats and assaults from Kurdish militants during this period. He survived two prior assassination attempts, the most recent of which was a shooting at his workplace in 2015 that failed to kill him.

The Assassination

On 10 October 2016, at approximately 22:35 local time (TSİ), Aktert was shot with long-barreled weapons by a group of seven or eight assailants at a gas station he owned in Dicle. He sustained severe gunshot injuries and was transported to Dicle State Hospital, where he later died. The attackers fled the scene in a stolen car.

Aftermath

Following the killing, an operation was launched in the region to locate and arrest those responsible. The People's Defence Forces (HPG), the armed wing of the PKK, claimed responsibility for the assassination. The same claim of responsibility also covered the killing of a village guard named Ahmet Adıyaman.