A 28-year-old farmer has been arrested in connection with the shooting deaths of eight people and the serious wounding of one more in three villages in Turkey's Afyonkarahisar province, according to Hürriyet. The suspect, named in Turkish media reports as Arif Sefa Özdemir, was detained on the Eskişehir–Afyonkarahisar highway in a vehicle he is alleged to have seized during his flight from the scene.
The killings took place in Yukarıtandır, Ayazini and Kıyır, villages in the İhsaniye district, where the victims were shot with a pump-action shotgun in a series of attacks. Three public prosecutors have been assigned to the case, and Hürriyet reports that investigators are pursuing multiple lines of inquiry.
Why it matters
The case has drawn national attention in Turkey, both for the number of victims and for the account emerging from the suspect's first statement to investigators. Among the dead are two teachers, Hilal Mete and Ayşe Sena Demir, who worked at Yukarıtandır Middle School; teaching at the school was suspended for a day after their deaths, and Hürriyet reports that the village has been left in mourning. The killings have also focused scrutiny on how a dispute over a farm machinery debt escalated into a sequence of shootings across a rural area.
A dispute over a harvester debt
According to accounts published by Hürriyet, the violence grew out of a financial quarrel over a combine harvester. In his initial statement, Özdemir said he had bought the machine from a man named Ahmet Uzel for 40,000 euros the previous year and had begun working with it around Manisa and İzmir. He said the harvester caught fire in a field in İzmir and was left unusable, after which he and Uzel fell into disagreement.
Özdemir's statement, as reported by Hürriyet, says Uzel approached him the previous week demanding the 11,000 euros he claimed was still owed on the machine. Özdemir said he believed the outstanding sum was 4,000 euros and that he would pay it shortly. The disagreement over the amount is said to have grown, with insults and threats exchanged by phone.
According to the same account, Özdemir invited Uzel to Afyonkarahisar on the day of the killings, ostensibly to make a payment. Uzel travelled to the city with Bekir and Noman Toprak. The parties met at the exit of Ayazini village, where, it is alleged, an argument broke out and Özdemir opened fire with a shotgun he had brought with him, killing the three men.
Investigators believe Özdemir then targeted other people along his escape route in order to take their vehicles, killing five more and seriously wounding one. Hürriyet reports that the file also contains allegations that he abandoned a car stuck in mud and took another vehicle from a shepherd, telling him he was a local villager.
What a fellow villager says happened
Ali İhsan Adatepe, a resident of the same village as the suspect, told reporters what he had heard about how the day unfolded. He said the dispute involved money owed to men from Kırşehir who operated combine harvesters, and that they had beaten Özdemir on an earlier occasion. He said the parties later spoke by phone and agreed to meet to settle the debt.
"From what we understand, he set up an ambush when they arrived and shot them," Adatepe said, according to Hürriyet. He went on to describe the suspect moving towards the Kıyı area, where he encountered two people on the road and shot them when they would not hand over their car. Adatepe added that the suspect then circled through the Bayat and Çıkrık areas and came across the two women teachers near Gazlıgöl, telling them to get out because he was changing vehicles. One got out and the other did not, and he shot them as well, Adatepe said.
Hürriyet also reports a separate detail under examination: in March 2026, a car parked outside a home in the Hasan Karaağaç neighbourhood of central Afyonkarahisar, registered to Özdemir, was attacked late at night by unidentified people. Özdemir reported the damage to police and filed a complaint, saying the vehicle had been badly damaged and written off. Investigators are said to be looking at whether earlier disputes shed light on the origins of the killings.
Mehmet Özdemir, a resident of Bozhüyük village who said he had known the suspect since childhood, told Hürriyet that the killings were a "savagery" but suggested the man may have had psychological problems. He said he had last seen him about two weeks earlier with his father, and that the suspect had generally stayed in the area during the summer and in city centres during the winter. He said the suspect had divorced after marital difficulties, had not been living in the village or with his family, and had worked as a crane operator, which he understood to be in the Sandıklı district of Afyonkarahisar.
The suspect was brought to the city after his detention in Eskişehir, Hürriyet reports. The investigation, now overseen by three prosecutors, is continuing, and further details of the suspect's statement and the sequence of the attacks are expected to be examined as the case moves forward.
