Turkey is confronting an unprecedented crisis after a 14-year-old student killed nine people and himself during a shooting rampage at Ayser Çalık Middle School in Kahramanmaraş’s Onikişubat district on April 15, 2026, making it the deadliest school attack in the nation’s history.
The shooting occurred at approximately 1:30 p.m. local time when İsa Aras Mersinli brought five 9mm pistols and seven magazines to school in his backpack. The weapons belonged to his father, Uğur Mersinli, a police chief inspector who was arrested the following day and transferred to Elazığ Prison, facing potential charges of gross negligence and failing to secure firearms.
Math teacher Ayla Kara, 55, died attempting to shield her students from the gunfire as Mersinli moved between two classrooms during his rampage. Eight students were killed at the scene, and a tenth victim succumbed to injuries while being treated in hospital the following day, bringing the final death toll to ten.
The victims have been identified as Mustafa Aslan, Şuranur Sevgi Kazıcı, Zeynep Kılınç, Furkan Sancak Balal, Bayram Nabi Şişik, Belinay Nur Boyraz (or Poyraz), Adnan Göktürk Yeşil, Kerem Erdem Güngör, and Yusuf Tarık Gül. An additional 12 people were wounded in the shooting, with six initially listed in critical condition.
Two staff members subdued the gunman in a stairwell, but after Mersinli broke free, Necmettin Bekçi, a father of two children attending the school, slashed the teenager’s leg with a knife to incapacitate him, inadvertently severing his femoral artery. Mersinli died from blood loss at the scene.
Dramatic video footage that emerged after the attack shows students jumping from first-floor windows of the school as gunshots echo across the grounds. Approximately 15 gunshots can be heard in the one-and-a-half-minute recording. Other footage captured desperate students fleeing through the courtyard as panicked parents rushed to the scene.
School officials had previously flagged Mersinli as a “problem student” who had undergone psychological examinations in recent months. A guidance counselor revealed the teenager struggled with screen addiction and school attendance. “We were in constant contact with his family. He had a screen addiction. He did not want to come to school. Even when he came, he wanted to leave,” the counselor said.
Turkish police discovered that Mersinli’s WhatsApp profile picture featured Elliot Rodger, a 22-year-old who killed six people near the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2014. “Initial findings from the investigation revealed that the perpetrator used an image on his WhatsApp profile referencing Elliot Rodger, who carried out an attack in the United States in 2014,” police stated.
A manifesto attributed to Mersinli later surfaced online, leaked by an individual claiming to be his online girlfriend from Argentina. The document, which contained racial and sexual slurs that were censored before release, detailed plans for “something big.” Police are currently analyzing digital media seized from the perpetrator’s home and his father’s vehicle.
The attack came just 28 hours after another school shooting in Turkey’s Şanlıurfa province, where a former student opened fire with a shotgun at a vocational high school in the Siverek district, wounding 16 people. That gunman later took his own life. By April 17, 20 people had been detained in connection with the Şanlıurfa attack.
Until this week, school shootings were rare in Turkey, making the back-to-back incidents particularly shocking for the nation. The interior and education ministries held a joint security meeting in Ankara on April 17, bringing together both ministers, all 81 of Turkey’s provincial governors, police chiefs, and provincial education directors.
In the days following the attacks, Turkish authorities launched a massive crackdown on social media activity. Justice Minister Akin Gurlek announced that 67 social media users were detained over posts targeting 54 different schools. Separately, police ordered arrests for 83 individuals accused of glorifying crime and criminals in posts about the two shootings.
The Ministry of Family and Social Services established a specialized team to provide psychosocial support to affected students and their families. Schools in Kahramanmaraş were closed for two days following the incident as the community mourned.
Funerals for nine of the victims were held on the afternoon of April 16, drawing hundreds of grieving family members and community members. Cevdet Yesil, father of victim Adnan Göktürk Yeşil, described the agonizing hours spent searching for his son before receiving confirmation of his death at the hospital.
The aunt of the victim, Şuranur Sevgi Kazıcı, learned of her 10-year-old niece’s death when the girl’s name was read aloud on television news. Another victim, Zeynep Kılınç, was remembered by her uncle, Mahmut, as a clever girl who respected others.
Hundreds of educators gathered in Ankara and Izmir, demanding enhanced school security measures, as the nation grapples with preventing future tragedies. Police have stated that, based on initial findings, no link to terrorism has been established, describing the attack as an isolated act.
