Turkish security forces on Wednesday brought under control a serious incident in the northern province of Gümüşhane, some 90 kilometres south of the city of Trabzon (Trebizond), where a local university civil servant took a female co-worker hostage at gunpoint, sparking panic in the campus and the intervention of special police forces.
The events occurred at around midday at the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences at Gümüşhane University, at which point H.T., a university worker, allegedly fired several shots with a gun he had brought into the building. He then took D.B., a female employee and co-worker, hostage. According to the Turkish daily Hürriyet, H.T. was suffering from psychological problems and had previously resigned from his post as a sergeant to join the university staff as a civil servant.
After security forces were alerted, a large number of police special operations units were deployed to the area and surrounded the building. All staff and students on the campus were quickly evacuated, while snipers were positioned on nearby rooftops and all access to both the campus and the faculty building were blocked to prevent further risk. The governor of the province, Aydın Baruş, travelled to the site to receive first-hand information from the special operation.
After about four hours of tense negotiation, specialised officers managed to convince the gunman to stand down. The suspect put down his weapon and was arrested without resistance, while the female worker held hostage was taken to the hospital by ambulance for examination as a precautionary measure. The motive for the incident is not known at this stage.
A similar incident occurred in Istanbul only a few days ago. On 10 November, a man carrying what later turned out to be a toy gun burst into the headquarters of beIN Sports, one of Turkey’s leading sports channels, threatening to shoot himself and raising the alarm before surrendering after being persuaded by police. The man was demanding to see a TV presenter with whom his wife, a security employee at the building, had had an argument.
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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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