Sarallar and Şahinler clans reconcile at MHP headquarters
Representatives of the Sarallar and Şahinler groups, long associated with organized crime and locked in a feud spanning roughly 22 years, met and shook hands at the office of Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli. The MHP called the meeting a "historic embrace."
RastinewsBurhanettin Saral of the Sarallar family and Sedat Şahin, known as the leader of the Şahinler group, met with Bahçeli in the evening at MHP headquarters in Ankara. Photographs of the three together were released after the meeting.
A statement from the MHP's official social media account described the two groups as "two valued families of our country." It said the meeting with Bahçeli at party headquarters amounted to a "historic embrace and reunion."
Meeting followed a police raid
According to Milli Gazete, the meeting took place shortly after a police raid targeting Yakup Kerem Saral of the Sarallar group, who was accused of preparing an assassination attempt against Sedat Şahin. The same report said the raid turned up a rocket launcher and numerous automatic weapons.
Before the Ankara meeting, the Saral family held a large gathering in the Sürmene district of Trabzon.
Not the first Bahçeli-Şahin meeting
Sedat Şahin had also visited Bahçeli at MHP headquarters after his release from prison in 2023. Over the years, the feud between the two groups had repeatedly drawn public attention through various investigations and court cases.
The meeting came as Bahçeli's process on the Kurdish issue, launched in autumn 2024 and dubbed "Turkey Without Terror," continues. Serbestiyet also reported on the meeting, under the headline "Another 'peace process' from Bahçeli."