13 people, taken under custody for their suspected links to the terrorist organization Daesh, are sent to court beside an accused, captured in an operation carried out by Turkish National Intelligence and Provincial Security Directorate, in Mersin, Turkey Sezgin Pancar Anadolu Agency via AFP Chronology 29 June 2020 7 minutes A Timeline of ISIS Attacks in Turkey and Corresponding Court Cases This timeline was published as an appendix to a Crisis Group report on Turkey's ISIS returnees Share Facebook Twitter Email Linkedin Whatsapp Save Print 20.03.2014 Target: StateEvent: 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. View More 06.01.2015 Target: StateEvent: 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 memberAccused/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. View More 05.06.2015 Target: Kurdish movement and/or left-leaning oppositionEvent: 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. View More 20.07.2015 Target: Kurdish movement and/or left-leaning oppositionEvent: 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. View More 23.07.2015 Target: StateEvent: 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 memberAccused/convicted perpetrators: One of the alleged assailants was killed by the security forces returning fire. The other four reported attackers escaped. View More 10.10.2015 Target: Kurdish movement and/or left-leaning oppositionEvent: 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). View More 12.01.2016 Target: TourismEvent: 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. View More 19.03.2016 Target: TourismEvent: 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. View More 22.04.2016 Target: UnknownEvent: Kilis; projectiles fired by ISIS hit the border province of Turkey.Fatalities: NoneAccused/convicted perpetrators: Unknown View More 24.04.2016 Target: UnknownEvent: Kilis; projectiles fired by ISIS wounded sixteen people, six of whom were Syrian nationals.Fatalities: NoneAccused/convicted perpetrators: Unknown View More 28.04.2016 Target: StateEvent: Gaziantep, Karkamış; ISIS fired projectiles targeting a military border post in the south-eastern province of Gaziantep.Fatalities: NoneAccused/convicted perpetrators: Unknown View More 29.04.2016 Target: UnknownEvent: Kilis; projectiles fired by ISIS hit the border province of Turkey.Fatalities: NoneAccused/convicted perpetrators: Unknown View More 01.05.2016 Target: StateEvent: Gaziantep; a vehicle-borne suicide attack carried out by Turkish citizen İsmail Güneş targeted the province’s police headquarters.Fatalities: Three state security force membersAccused/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. View More 20.06.2016 Target: Kurdish movement and/or left-leaning oppositionEvent: 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. View More 28.06.2016 Target: TourismEvent: 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. View More 01.01.2017 Target: TourismEvent: Istanbul, Ortaköy; a gunman opened fire on a crowd in the Reina nightclub in the Ortaköy neighbourhood of Istanbul, during new year celebrations. This was the only attack among those listed here that ISIS claimed. All other attacks were attributed to the group.Fatalities: 39 civilians (twelve of them Turkish, seven Saudi, three Iraqi, three Lebanese, two Jordanian, two Moroccan, two Indian, one Kuwaiti, one Libyan, one Israeli, one Tunisian, one Tunisian-French, one Canadian, one Syrian, one Russian)Accused/convicted perpetrators: Seven people (six foreign, one Turkish citizen) are still on trial, with the accused including shooting assassin Abdulkadir Masharipov (Uzbek national) and Abdurrauf Sert (Turkish citizen), who is accused of plotting the attack and was apparently tasked with securing safe houses for ISIS operatives in Istanbul as a so-called "deputy emir”. On 27 January 2020, the prosecutor demanded consecutive aggravated life sentences for the accused. The trial is ongoing. View More See More * ISIS only claimed the 1 January 2017 shooting attack that killed 39 civilians. The other fifteen attacks were attributed to the group. ISIS also claimed a car bombing in Diyarbakır’s Bağlar district in November 2016, but so did the PKK-affiliated Kurdistan Freedom Falcons. Turkish officials attributed this attack to the PKK and a court case against six accused for PKK-related terrorism charges in connection to the attack is pending. Related Tags More for you