Eight held after Turkey attack kills 44

EIGHT men suspected of gunning down 44 people during an engagement ceremony were arrested yesterday, accused of killing the betrothed couple – whose wedding they opposed – along with relatives and friends in a 15-minute rampage.

Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the attack was “the result of a feud between two families”.

The bride and her groom were killed in Monday evening’s attack in Bilge, a village of a few hundred people in the conservative heartland of mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey. “Eight people have been caught and detained, and their weapons confiscated. This can be understood as a blood feud between two families,” Interior Minister Besir Atalay told a news conference.

The suspected gunmen and many of the victims bore the same family name, Atalay said. The Celebi family had been at odds with each other over land, membership of state-sponsored village guards, and more recently over the bride, local residents said. The attack was sparked by revenge from one part of the Celebi family, unhappy a son had been passed over for a groom from another family in Diyarbakir, residents said.

State news agency Anatolian quoted witnesses as saying up to six attackers stormed two houses where guests had gathered for prayers after the wedding.

Sevgi Celebi, the daughter of the village chief, called a muhtar, was being married when the attack occurred. The groom was named Habip Ari. “They broke into the house and started spraying the place with bullets, hitting both men and women, their faces were covered with masks,” said a 20-year-old female eyewitness.

A student survived because the body of his slain brother fell on top of him.

The 44 victims included 16 women and six children. The attack was one of the worst involving civilians in the modern history of European Union candidate Turkey.

“They ruined us all. I want them to get the biggest punishment possible. I wish fire in the houses of those who put fire in my house,” Sultan Celebi, 75, who lost four children, three daughters-in-laws and one grandchild, said.

Marriages in the conservative southeast, where it is usual to carry weapons, can spark rivalry between clans because the groom must often pay some kind of prize to the bride’s family for marriage, and sometimes the highest bidder wins. The scale of the latest attack will concern the government, which is attempting to defuse tensions in the southeast born of separatist conflict with PKK Kurdish guerrillas.