Turkish police shot and killed Muhammed Kavi during a raid targeting the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) before a NATO summit in Ankara, but his family says he was unarmed, so he could not have opened fire, and was shot at close range while with his wife and children, Deutsche Welle’s Turkish edition (DW Türkçe) reported Thursday.
Kavi was shot during a June 23 operation in Sazağası, a rural neighborhood in Haymana, a district southwest of Ankara, as part of a security sweep targeting suspected ISIL activity before the NATO summit scheduled for July 7 and 8 in the Turkish capital, DW Türkçe reported.
The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said on June 23 that detention warrants had been issued for 241 suspects in investigations targeting several organizations, including 56 people accused of links to ISIL, Turkish media reported, citing the prosecutor’s statement.
A total of 209 people were detained in the operations.
Police sources claimed special operations officers raided the Kavi family home at around 3 a.m. and came under fire from inside the house while trying to enter.
Police sources said four bullets hit a police shield and that Kavi was shot in the shoulder during the ensuing clash, while his wife, identified by Turkish media as Nazan Kavi, was shot in the head, according to DW Türkçe.
Kavi was taken to a hospital and died from loss of blood after allegedly trying to flee during a computerized tomography scan, while his wife was receiving treatment at Bilkent City Hospital in Ankara and was in critical condition, DW Türkçe reported, citing police sources.
Kavi’s family rejected the police account, saying there was no weapon in the house, no shell casings and no exchange of fire, according to the report.
Cömert Kavi, Kavi’s uncle, said police knocked on the door at around 3 a.m., asked Kavi’s father where Muhammed Kavi was and then entered the house after checking identities and calling the village headman.
Kavi’s father and brother were forced to the ground, while Muhammed Kavi was in a room with his wife and children when officers entered and shot him directly, Cömert Kavi told DW Türkçe.
“If there was a clash, why have they been searching the house for two days? There was no such thing. There was no clash and no gun was found in the house,” Cömert Kavi told DW Türkçe.
“If they find one shell casing, we will accept it. But there is none. We are people loyal to our state. If he committed a crime, he should have been tried, but is this how a person should be killed?” Cömert Kavi told DW Türkçe.
Cömert Kavi also said the raid took place on the day Muhammed Kavi’s sister died of cancer and that the family was preparing for her funeral.
The family’s account has raised questions about whether a gun allegedly used in the incident was found, whether a ballistic examination was conducted, whether the reported bullets that hit the police shield were documented and whether statements were taken from family members and children who were at the scene.
DW Türkçe said it had sent questions to the Ankara Police Department, the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Interior Ministry and the Justice Ministry but had received no response by the time its report was prepared.
No public statement had been issued by the institutions on the circumstances of Kavi’s killing as of the time of DW Türkçe’s publication.
Police sources alleged that Kavi was linked to Ismael Jabbar Khaleel Alhaj, described as an ISIL figure accused of giving instructions for attacks in Turkey through TikTok.
Police also claimed Kavi joined online chat groups allegedly close to ISIL through a TikTok account under his own name.
Other Turkish outlets, citing security sources, reported that police believed Kavi’s contacts had the potential to lead to a lone-actor attack before the NATO summit.
The Haymana raid came as Ankara authorities imposed security measures ahead of the 36th NATO heads of state and government summit, which is expected to bring leaders of the alliance’s 32 member states to the Turkish capital.
The Ankara Governor’s Office said public gatherings, demonstrations, press statements, hunger strikes, sit-ins, rallies, leaflet distribution, banners and similar events would be banned across the province from June 28 through July 10 as part of summit security measures.
The governor’s office also said unauthorized drone flights would be prohibited during the same period, citing summit security, public order and the protection of foreign delegations.