Death toll rises in Turkey’s second school shooting in a week

Turkey’s Second School Shooting in Two Days Claims 10 Lives

The death toll from Turkey’s second school shooting in two days climbed to 10 on Thursday after another victim succumbed to injuries while receiving hospital treatment, authorities confirmed.

According to officials, six of the wounded had been in critical condition before the latest death was reported early Thursday. The incident occurred Wednesday when 14-year-old Isa Aras Mersinli opened fire on two classrooms at a middle school in the southern city of Kahramanmaras, killing a teacher and eight students while wounding 13 others.

Investigators revealed that the gunman, who was also killed during the incident, arrived at the school armed with five firearms and seven magazines that belonged to his father, a retired police superintendent. The father has since been arrested in connection with the attack.

The tragedy in Kahramanmaras came just one day after another school shooting rocked the nearby Sanliurfa province, where 16 people were wounded when a former student opened fire at a high school. Most of the victims in that incident were students. The assailant later died by suicide. Authorities have detained 20 individuals in connection with Tuesday’s shooting in Sanliurfa as the investigation continues.

In response to the back-to-back tragedies, Turkey’s interior and education ministries convened an emergency school security meeting in Ankara on Thursday. The high-level gathering included both ministers, all 81 of the country’s provincial governors, police chiefs, and provincial education directors to address the sudden outbreak of school violence in a country where such incidents have historically been rare.

A disturbing detail emerged from the national police headquarters’ investigation: the Kahramanmaras shooter’s WhatsApp profile picture featured Elliot Rodger, the college student responsible for killing six people in California in 2014. Rodger has become an icon in certain online communities that promote violence.

The Ministry of Family and Social Services announced Thursday it had assembled a specialized team to “provide psychosocial support” to affected students and their families. The ministry also plans to conduct a comprehensive investigation into similar incidents to prevent future tragedies.

On Thursday afternoon, funerals were held for each of the eight students killed in the Kahramanmaras attack, all of whom were 11 years old. Math teacher Ayla Kara, 55, who died protecting her students, was also laid to rest.

The human toll of the violence was evident in the words of Cevdet Yesil, whose son Adnan Gokturk Yesil was among those killed. “We searched for our child, our son, until 5 p.m.,” Yesil recounted. “One way or another, our security forces found him. We went to the hospital and identified his remains. We saw he had died.”

The unprecedented school shootings have sparked immediate calls for action across the country. Hundreds of educators gathered in Ankara and the western city of Izmir to demand enhanced school security measures. Until this week, school shootings had been exceptionally rare in Turkey, making the back-to-back incidents all the more shocking to a nation unaccustomed to such violence in educational settings.

Turkish authorities are taking a hard stance against potential copycats. Justice Minister Akin Gurlek announced that 67 social media users had been detained over posts that appeared to threaten similar attacks targeting 54 different schools across the country.

As Turkey grapples with this unfamiliar form of violence, the government faces mounting pressure to implement comprehensive school safety protocols while addressing the underlying factors that may have contributed to these tragedies.