8 charged for murder in Mardin

The Doğan news agency reported that the gendarmerie investigation into the tragedy, which occurred late Monday at an engagement party in the village of Bilge in the Mazıdağı district, resulted in the detention of 10 people on Tuesday, with the local court ordering the arrest of eight of them yesterday.

The death toll included the bride and groom, his parents, 4-year-old sister and three pregnant women. Of the 44 victims, a total of 16 were women and six were children. The Doğan news agency said the attack has left 40 children without parents.

The state-run Anatolia news agency reported that two fugitive suspects linked to the crime were detained yesterday and questioning continues. No information was available on the identity of the suspects, but authorities have said some were related to the victims. One of the people charged was a 14-year-old boy, the Anatolia news agency reported.

The gendarmerie was keeping watch on the homes of the suspected attackers, Doğan news agency reported, adding that not even their families were being allowed to leave.

Motive still unclear
The motive for the attack remains unclear. "This was not just a random act, or one carried out in a moment of madness. It was well-planned-out brutality," Interior Minister Beşir Atalay told reporters in Ankara on Tuesday after returning from a visit to the site of the carnage. "I spoke at length with an elderly relative of some of the victims who said there was a long-running grudge and jealousy between the two sides."

Speaking to reporters late Wednesday, Atalay said the security forces in the region have taken all necessary measures to prevent a possible counter-attack by the families of the victims. "There is not just one motive behind the attack. There are many reasons. But what is important for us now is that we have arrested the suspected perpetrators," he said. According to the Anatolia news agency, the attackers wanted the betrothed woman, Sevgi Çelebi, to marry a member of their own group of friends or relatives, but that her family would not allow it. The agency quoted villagers as saying there was a dispute between the attackers’ family and that of the groom, and that the bride’s family had resisted pressure to cancel the marriage plans.

Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin, however, said the families were also engaged in hostilities over some fish farms near the village, daily Hürriyet reported on its Web site late Tuesday.

Ergin said he had spoken to three people in the village and was left with the impression that there was a monetary motive behind the murders. "All of the suspects are giving conflicting testimonies," he said. All of the adult males in the village are village guards and the weapons used were allegedly among those distributed by the state in an effort to fend off attacks by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. The pro-Kurdish Democratic People's Party has submitted a request for a Parliamentary inquiry into the affair. Hürriyet also quoted a suspect as saying under interrogation that the attackers had intended to kill everyone in the ceremony in order to eliminate the possibility of survivors taking revenge. "Unless we kill everybody, including women and children, they could try to kill some of us over this blood feud," one suspect reportedly said during questioning.

Of the victims, 39 have been buried in the village; the groom and his father, mother and sister were buried in Diyarbakır late Tuesday, while the village imam’s body was sent to Ankara’s Beypazarı district to be buried yesterday.