Lawyer and nationalist politician Serdar Öktem (49) was killed in a rush-hour ambush yesterday on Büyükdere Avenue in Şişli. İstanbul prosecutors say 13 people have now been detained as part of the investigation, up from an initial six. Early findings suggest the attack was carried out over an organized-crime grudge, not yet linked to politics.
Police say assailants in a separate vehicle opened fire with long-barreled rifles and handguns as Öktem sat in traffic near the 15 July Martyrs Bridge turnoff. He was taken to hospital and pronounced dead. Officers later recovered two Kalashnikov-style rifles, two pistols, ski masks and gloves in the Arnavutköy area where suspects fled and were captured, according to the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.
A preliminary report by Turkey’s Council of Forensic Medicine recorded gunshot wounds to the head, face and left arm, noting skull and facial fractures, brain hemorrhage, tissue destruction and major vessel injury. Investigators documented at least four bullet-fragment entry wounds; at least one injury to each of the head, face and left arm was independently lethal. en.haberler.com+1
Connection to the Sinan Ateş assassination
Öktem was a defense attorney and longtime nationalist figure. He previously served as a deputy chair (legal affairs) of the Grey Wolves (Ülkü Ocakları) and stood as an MHP parliamentary candidate in 2023. He had represented several high-profile defendants from İstanbul’s ultranationalist milieu.
Öktem became a central defendant in the case over the December 30, 2022 murder of former Grey Wolves leader Sinan Ateş in Ankara. The main trial began on July 1, 2024 with 22 defendants before the Ankara 32nd High Criminal Court. In October 2024, the court issued aggravated life sentences for five men, including the triggerman, while separating some files—among them Öktem’s—for further investigation as authorities sought access to his phone. (He had argued attorney-client privilege.) Subsequent reporting indicated appellate judges later ordered consolidation of the separated case with a related file.
Opposition figures and bar associations criticized the 2024 verdict for failing to probe political connections or potential masterminds, arguing that senior MHP circles were shielded.
Prosecutors say preliminary assessments point to a mob feud. In late August 2025, İstanbul police warned district stations that members of the Daltonlar (Daltons) gang were planning an attack on Öktem and urged protective measures. After the shooting, social-media accounts linked to the gang claimed the hit as revenge for the August killing in Spain of their member Caner Koçer. Authorities have not confirmed those claims and say the probe continues.
Öktem’s killing removes a key defendant whom both prosecutors and critics cast as a coordinating link between the İstanbul team that moved the shooter and Ankara-area accomplices—allegations he denied. With his separated case pending and his phone still a point of contention, his death could complicate efforts to clarify who ordered the Ateş assassination. Families of victims and opposition politicians already contend that the courts have not protected defendants and witnesses and have avoided political accountability, concerns that may intensify after Monday’s attack.
