ISTANBUL: A gunman shot dead four Turkish academics at their university on Thursday whom he saw as supporters of a Muslim cleric accused by the government of being behind a failed coup in 2016, the university rector said.
The state-run news agency Anadolu said police had arrested the gunman at Osmangazi University in the town of Eskisehir near the capital Ankara. An Anadolu reporter told broadcaster CNN Turk the gunman had surrendered and did not try to escape.
Osmangazi University rector Hasan Gonen said the gunman had worked as a researcher at the institution and had fatally shot the assistant dean, faculty secretary, a lecturer and an education faculty staff member.
Gonen said he believed the assailant was looking for the dean, who was not in the building at the time, when he entered the education faculty and opened fire.
“This person had claimed that some members of the university were members of FETO, and he had made similar claims (previously) in court,” Gonen said, using an acronym denoting the network of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.
Turkey’s government accuses Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999, of having orchestrated the abortive July 2016 attempt by parts of the armed forces to topple President Tayyip Erdogan. More than 250 people were killed in the coup bid. Gulen denies involvement.
Gonen said the gunman’s claim was being investigated by authorities prior to Thursday’s shooting.
Ayse Aypay, a professor at the university, told Turkish media that some members of staff had “repeatedly filed complaints” about the gunman. “Who will pay the price for protecting him now?” Aypay said. She said she would file a criminal complaint to higher educational authorities over their alleged failure to deal with complaints about the suspect.
Eskisehir Governor Ozdemir Cakacak said regional prosecutors had launched an investigation into the incident.
Gunman kills four academics at Turkish university — rector
Gunman kills four academics at Turkish university — rector
Algeria inaugurates strategic railway to giant Sahara mine
- The mine is expected to produce 4 million tons per year during the initial phase, with production projected to triple to 12 million tons per year by 2030
- The project is financed by the Algerian state and partly built by a Chinese consortium
ALGEIRS: Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune on Sunday inaugurated a nearly 1,000-kilometer (621-mile) desert railway to transport iron ore from a giant mine, a project he called one of the biggest in the country’s history.
The line will bring iron ore from the Gara Djebilet deposit in the south to the city of Bechar located 950 kilometers north, to be taken to a steel production plant near Oran further north.
The project is financed by the Algerian state and partly built by a Chinese consortium.
During the inauguration, Tebboune described it as “one of the largest strategic projects in the history of independent Algeria.”
This project aims to increase Algeria’s iron ore extraction capacity, as the country aspires to become one of Africa’s leading steel producers.
The iron ore deposit is also seen as a key driver of Algeria’s economic diversification as it seeks to reduce its reliance on hydrocarbons, according to experts.
President Tebboune attended an inauguration ceremony in Bechar, welcoming the first passenger train from Tindouf in southern Algeria and sending toward the north a first charge of iron ore, according to footage broadcast on national television.
The mine is expected to produce 4 million tons per year during the initial phase, with production projected to triple to 12 million tons per year by 2030, according to estimates by the state-owned Feraal Group, which manages the site.
It is then expected to reach 50 million tons per year in the long term, it said.
The start of operations at the mine will allow Algeria to drastically reduce its iron ore imports and save $1.2 billion per year, according to Algerian media.
