A Timeline of ISIS Attacks in Turkey and Corresponding Court Cases

Target: State
Event: Niğde; three ISIS militants, who reportedly were travelling to Istanbul from Hatay, opened fire on a Turkish gendarmerie patrol that tried to stop their car.
Fatalities: Two state security force members, one civilian (Turkish citizen)
Accused/convicted perpetrators: Three people (all foreign nationals) were convicted on 15 June 2016. Benyamin Xu (German national), Çendrim Ramadani (Swiss national) and Muhammed Zakiri (Macedonian national) were all sentenced to life imprisonment.

Target: State
Event: Istanbul, Sultanahmet; a suicide attack hit a police station in Istanbul’s historical Sultanahmet district. Diana Ramazova, a Russian citizen reportedly from Dagestan, committed the suicide attack.
Fatalities: One state security force member
Accused/convicted perpetrators: According to news reports dated 14 April 2016, two of the five foreign national arrestees were released pending trial: Abdula Abdulaev (Azerbaijani national) and Yakup İbragimov (Russian national). Both are charged with human trafficking and membership in a terrorist organisation. No further information was reported.

Target: Kurdish movement and/or left-leaning opposition
Event: Diyarbakır; a bombing took place 48 hours before the June 2015 general election, two separate bombs were detonated at a pro-Kurdish HDP electoral rally in Diyarbakır.
Fatalities: Four civilians (all Turkish citizens of Kurdish origin)
Accused/convicted perpetrators: Five Turkish citizens (Mustafa Kılınç, İsmail Korkmaz, Orhan Gönder, Burhan Gök, İlhami Balı) are tried on charges of attempting to abolish the constitutional order, murder, attempted murder and unauthorised possession of hazardous materials. Orhan Gönder, Mustafa Kılınç and İsmail Korkmaz were sentenced to a total of 3,336 years of imprisonment on charges of “attempting to intentionally kill 104 people” and “injuring 112 others”. Meanwhile, Burhan Gök, who had been apprehended together with Brussels-bomber İbrahim el-Bakraoui in a park in Gaziantep in June 2015 (he was on trial without arrest) was acquitted of all crimes by majority vote. The fugitive defendant, İlhami Balı will be considered as part of a separate case.

Target: Kurdish movement and/or left-leaning opposition
Event: Şanlıurfa, Suruç; a suicide attack hit a municipal cultural centre killing 33 mostly pro-Kurdish youth activists as they were making a press statement before their planned visit to the Syrian border town of Kobani to aid reconstruction and help civilians. Abdurrahman Alagöz, a Turkish citizen returnee, reportedly committed the suicide attack. He was the brother of Yunus Emre Alagöz, who in October 2015 would be one of the suicide bombers in the ISIS attack in Ankara (see item 6 below).
Fatalities: 33 civilians (mostly pro-Kurdish movement youth activists)
Accused/convicted perpetrators: One Turkish citizen, Yakub Şahin, remains under arrest in this ongoing case. Even if he is not convicted in this case, Şahin will serve a life sentence for his involvement in the 10 October Ankara railway station bombing case (see item 6). Two Turkish citizen fugitives (İlhami Balı and Deniz Büyükçelebi) are also charged in this case.

Target: State
Event: Kilis, Elbeyli; ISIS militants conducted a cross-border shooting attack targeting a Turkish border outpost in Kilis, killing one soldier.
Fatalities: One state security force member
Accused/convicted perpetrators: One of the alleged assailants was killed by the security forces returning fire. The other four reported attackers escaped.

Target: Kurdish movement and/or left-leaning opposition
Event: Ankara; a twin suicide bombing took place three weeks prior to the 1 November repeat general election. Two bombs were detonated outside the central railway station during the “Labour, Peace and Democracy” rally organised by the HDP, the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey and some other left-leaning organisations. Yunus Emre Alagöz reportedly was one of the suicide bombers, while the second bomber remained unidentified. Yunus Emre Alagöz was the brother of Abdurrahman Alagöz (suicide bomber of the 20 July 2015 Suruç attack – see item 4 above).
Fatalities: 103 civilians (mostly left-leaning pro-opposition activists)
Accused/convicted perpetrators: Eighteen convicted (all Turkish citizens). Individuals sentenced to life imprisonment on 3 August 2018: Abdülmubtalip Demir, Talha Güneş, Metin Akaltın, Yakub Şahin, Hakan Şahin, Halil İbrahim Alçay, Resul Demir, Hacı Ali Durmaz and Hüseyin Tunç. Sentences on terrorism-related charges of Burak Ormanoğlu, Suphi Alpfidan, Mehmedin Baraç, Nihat Ürkmez, Yakup Karaoğlu, Esin Altıntuğ, Hatice Akaltın, Yakup Yıldırım and Abdulhamit Boz ranged between seven and 32 years. Meanwhile, sixteen fugitives charged included İlhami Balı, the so-called border emir of ISIS. The other Turkish citizen suspects, Mehmet Kadir Cabael, ISIS’ so-called Gaziantep emir, and Yunus Durmaz, allegedly one of the main plotters of the Ankara railway station bombing, would later be killed during police raids on 16 October 2016 and 19 May 2016 respectively (see items 13 and 14 below).

Target: Tourism
Event: Istanbul, Sultanahmet; an ISIS suicide attack targeted tourists in the historical district of Istanbul. Nabil Fadli, a Saudi national, committed the suicide attack.
Fatalities: Twelve civilians (eleven of them German, one Peruvian)
Accused/convicted perpetrators: Two Syrians, one Turkish citizen convicted. Atala el-Hasan el-Mayyuf (Syrian national), who brought the bomb to Şanlıurfa, Fevzi Muhammed Ali (Syrian national), who brought the bomb to Istanbul, and Halil Derviş (Turkish citizen), who facilitated Nabil Fadli’s arrival to Istanbul, were sentenced to life imprisonment on 31 January 2018.

Target: Tourism
Event: Istanbul, Beyoğlu; a suicide attack targeted tourists on Istiklal street, Istanbul’s main shopping alley. Mehmet Öztürk, a Turkish citizen returnee who went to Syria and joined ISIS in 2013, committed the suicide attack.
Fatalities: Five civilians (three of them Israeli, two Iranian)
Accused/convicted perpetrators: Four Turkish citizens convicted. On 5 April 2019, Ercan Çapkın and Hüseyin Kaya were convicted to life imprisonment on charges of murder and attempting to abolish the constitutional order. Mehmet Mustafa Çevik and İbrahim Gürler were sentenced to 15 years in prison on terrorism-related charges.

Target: Unknown
Event: Kilis; projectiles fired by ISIS hit the border province of Turkey.
Fatalities: None
Accused/convicted perpetrators: Unknown

Target: Unknown
Event: Kilis; projectiles fired by ISIS wounded sixteen people, six of whom were Syrian nationals.
Fatalities: None
Accused/convicted perpetrators: Unknown

Target: State
Event: Gaziantep, Karkamış; ISIS fired projectiles targeting a military border post in the south-eastern province of Gaziantep.
Fatalities: None
Accused/convicted perpetrators: Unknown

Target: Unknown
Event: Kilis; projectiles fired by ISIS hit the border province of Turkey.
Fatalities: None
Accused/convicted perpetrators: Unknown

Target: State
Event: Gaziantep; a vehicle-borne suicide attack carried out by Turkish citizen İsmail Güneş targeted the province’s police headquarters.
Fatalities: Three state security force members
Accused/convicted perpetrators: Two Turkish citizens, Emin Kepel and Hanifi Küplü, were convicted to 8 years and 9 months, and 7 years and 6 months in prison respectively on membership in a terrorist organisation charges on 5 August 2016. Yunus Durmaz, allegedly the plotter of the attack, was killed during a police raid on 19 May 2016 carried out in connection to the attack.

Target: Kurdish movement and/or left-leaning opposition
Event: Gaziantep, Şahinbey; a suicide attack apparently executed by a child (identity unknown) wearing a suicide vest targeted the wedding of a pro-HDP Kurdish family.
Fatalities: 57 civilians (all Turkish citizens of Kurdish origin)
Accused/convicted perpetrators: Ten people (nine of them Turkish citizens, one foreign) were convicted on 14 March 2019. Mehmet Şahin Erğan, Mehmet Çalıkuşu, Ahmet Köşgeroğlu, Ali Çalıkuşu, Hacı Polat, Hasan Uzun and Mehmet Karakurt received life sentences for murder and violation of the constitution. Enes Karataş and Yunus Sarı were sentenced to 10 years in prison for membership in a terrorist organisation. The only foreign perpetrator, Abdurrahman el-Najjar, was also sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of murder and violation of the constitution. El-Najjar was apprehended in a police raid on 16 October 2016 in the Güneykent district of Gaziantep, during which an explosion killed three police officers. During another anti-terror raid following the attack, on 16 October 2016, Mehmet Kadir Cabael, a Turkish citizen and the so-called Gaziantep emir of ISIS, was killed in clashes with police.

Target: Tourism
Event: Istanbul, Atatürk Airport; three gunmen armed with automatic weapons and suicide belts staged an attack at the international terminal. Rakim Bulgarov (Kyrgyz national), Vadim Osmanov and Akhmed Osmanov (Russian nationals from Chechnya) carried out the attack. Two assailants blew themselves up, while one was reportedly shot dead by state security forces before being able to detonate his suicide belt.
Fatalities: 30 civilians (nine of them Turkish, six Saudi, three Jordanian, three Palestinian, two Iraqi, one Tunisian, one Iranian, one Ukrainian, one Uzbek, three undisclosed)
Accused/convicted perpetrators: Ten people (among them seven Turkish citizens) convicted on 16 November 2018: Turkish citizens Rıza Coşkun, Levent Uysal, Ahmet Kaplan, Eyüp Demir, Ahmet Dizlek and foreign national Djamel Slimani (reportedly Algerian) were sentenced to aggravated life sentences on charges of murder, membership in a terrorist organisation, violation of the constitution and damaging property. Djamel Slimani was also sentenced to three years and nine months in prison for forging official documents. The other two foreign defendants, Anzor Davitiani and Artur Tengizov (nationalities not reported), were sentenced to nine years of imprisonment for membership in a terrorist organisation. Seyhun Ali Akçay and Cuma Güneş, both Turkish citizens, were sentenced to twelve years in prison on the same charges.