Turkish police detained a man on Tuesday after he set a white Renault Toros on fire at the entrance of the parliament building in Ankara, an act that revived memories of state abuses from the 1990s and coincided with a parliamentary hearing on the country’s decades-long conflict with Kurdish militants.
The fire broke out outside the main gate of parliament in the morning and was quickly extinguished by police and firefighters. No one was injured. Police said the suspect, identified only by the initials M.E.F., was taken into custody. Authorities described him as a scrap dealer from the southern city of Mersin with a prior police record and psychological health issues.
According to the interior ministry, the man set the car ablaze out of frustration over the government’s “scrap vehicle incentive” program, which he believed would give him a tax reduction that never materialized. Officials also noted he had carried out a similar act in 2018 by burning a car in front of a courthouse.
Why the ‘Renault Toros’ matters
Although officials attributed the act to a personal grievance, the model of the car made the incident politically charged. The Renault Toros, a sedan produced in Turkey until 2000, is remembered in the country as a symbol of enforced disappearances during the conflict between the Turkish state and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Throughout the 1990s, rights groups documented hundreds of abductions and unsolved murders in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast. Witnesses frequently reported victims being forced into white Toros cars, which became associated with the gendarmerie intelligence unit known as JİTEM, accused of operating illegal counterinsurgency squads. For many, the car evokes the era’s unresolved abuses, particularly against Kurdish civilians.
Link to parliament’s agenda
The burning took place just as the National Solidarity, Brotherhood and Democracy Commission was holding hearings on how to address the consequences of the conflict with the PKK. The PKK, which Turkey and its Western allies designate as a terrorist organization, fought an armed insurgency for four decades that left more than 40,000 people dead.
In July the PKK announced it would begin laying down arms after a call from its jailed leader, Abdullah Öcalan, prompting parliament to form the commission. This week’s session was devoted to hearing testimony from associations of war veterans, families of soldiers killed in the conflict and the “Diyarbakır Mothers,” a group of women who accuse the PKK of recruiting their children. On Wednesday the panel is scheduled to hear from the “Saturday Mothers,” who represent relatives of people who disappeared in the 1990s, as well as from peace groups and rights organizations.
The appearance of a burning white Toros outside parliament on the same day underscored how symbols of past abuses continue to haunt Turkey’s present, even as lawmakers attempt to chart a path toward reconciliation.
The authorities announced a criminal probe into the incident. While officials insisted the motive was personal and unrelated to politics, the imagery evoking the enduring scars of the 1990s conflict sparked speculation whether it is a symbolic message delivered to the government by parties that are against peace with the PKK.
