At least five people were injured in a multiple stabbing in Turkey, perpetrated by a knife-wielding individual dressed as a video game character who live-streamed the attack, inspired by Nazi symbolism and the Christchurch massacre in New Zealand.
According to Turkish media, the attack took place in the city of Eskişehir in northwestern Turkey. The perpetrator of the attack, an 18-year-old man identified as Arda K., was wearing a helmet, a bulletproof vest with the Nazi emblem of the Black Sun on his chest and a mask inspired by a video game character, and was carrying an axe and a large knife.
The attacker reportedly went to the courtyard of a cafe opposite the Tepebaşı mosque in the Uludere neighbourhood, on the outskirts of the Turkish city of Eskişehir; there, he was able to stab 5 of the people who were sitting there at the time and broadcast the entire incident live on his social network profile on X, spreading terror until an on-duty policeman managed to stop him and immobilise him as he tried to escape.
A “modern saint” admirer of Brenton Tarrant
The suspect, who uses the nickname “Skreewie” on social media, left a 17-page written manifesto describing himself as a “purifier” and a “modern saint”, detailing all the preparations he made to carry out the attack and expressing his admiration for Brenton Tarrant, the perpetrator of the Christchurch mosque massacre in New Zealand, as well as other similar characters. It also mentioned that, if caught, he should defiantly “smile for the cameras“: “Those NPC insects will go crazy for not being able to smile even once in their miserable lives”, he wrote.
The manifesto also details that the attacker’s original target was actually the local headquarters of the Communist Party of Turkey, but that he eventually had to change his plans at the last minute: “I should have carried out this attack much earlier,” he confessed. “I will attack everyone on my way,” he wrote in the letter, in which he reminded himself of what he had to do to prepare the attack: “isolate myself” and not talk to anyone, draw inspiration from the manifestos of other “purifiers”, and start by killing members of his family with “2 or 3 easy kills”.
While the exact motives for this multiple stabbing are not yet known, the hypothesis being worked on by Turkish police and officials is that the attacker was inspired by war video games. Two of the five people injured in the attack, on which a local court has imposed a ban on media coverage of the details of the investigation until it is completed, are in critical condition and have life-threatening injuries.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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