On 15 April 2026, a school shooting occurred at the Ayser Çalık Secondary School in the Onikişubat district of Kahramanmaraş Province, Turkey. İsa Aras Mersinli, a 13-year-old student enrolled at the school, shot and killed 10 people and injured 13 more. Mersinli died from hypovolemic shock after sustaining a fatal knife injury inflicted by a parent on the school stairs while attempting to flee the scene.
The shooting occurred the day after a school shooting in the Siverek district of Şanlıurfa Province. It is the deadliest school shooting in the history of Turkey.
At the time, İsa Aras Mersinli was undergoing treatment for psychiatric issues, having a history of self-harm (such as stabbing their palm with a pen, cutting their hand with a knife, and slitting their own throat), as well as aggressive behavior towards other people at the school. In spite of this, their father, Uğur Mersinli, a police officer, had reportedly taken their child to a police shooting range to teach him how to use firearms two days prior to the shooting. They later claimed that they were locked in a safe, which was disproven by a video showing their child loading a magazine and several photos of him posing with a gun. The deputy headteacher, who checked Mersinli's schoolbag every day and closely monitored their mental state, had been relieved of their duties a month before the massacre. It was reported that the attacker had managed to smuggle the weapons into the school by concealing them inside an art project.
Background
School shootings are uncommon in Turkey. The nation has gun laws that require licensing, registration, psychiatric evaluations, criminal background checks, and severe penalties for illegal possession. Although some say these laws are strict, others say that the number of individual gun owners has increased dangerously. Prior to the Onikişubat shooting, the most notable school shooting was the 2018 Eskişehir University shooting. Following the Siverek attack, many teachers' unions in Turkey announced a nationwide one-day work stoppage for 15 April to protest the lack of security for educators and students.
Minutes before the shooting, Minister of National Education Yusuf Tekin addressed the press ahead of the AK Party's Grand National Assembly (TBMM) group meeting. Regarding the Siverek shooting, he stated that, based on assessments conducted with the Ministry of the Interior, schools have been classified by risk category and that such safety issues remain a priority on his agenda.
Other attacks in Turkey
The day prior, a 19-year-old man opened fire at a vocational high school in Siverek, Şanlıurfa Province, injuring 16 people before committing suicide. On the same day as the Onikişubat shooting, a teenager opened fire at a student outside a high school in Şahinbey, Gaziantep Province. Five shots were fired but nobody was injured. A high school student in Tarsus, Mersin Province, was also taken into custody after being caught with a handgun at school. A 14-year-old boy was severely injured in a stabbing at a park in Keçiören, Ankara Province. On 17 April 2026, a parent of a student at the Dumlupınar Secondary School in Şanlıurfa attempted to attack a teacher with a knife. Police officers at the school subdued the attacker, and no one was injured in the incident.
Shooting
According to preliminary reports from the Kahramanmaraş Governor's Office and local law enforcement, the shooting began at approximately 13:30 TRT. The shooter reportedly concealed five 9mm pistols and seven magazines in a backpack before entering the school. The shooting started after the perpetrator entered a classroom and opened fire on the occupants. Following this, he moved to a second classroom where he continued the attack. At least one of the attacked classrooms was a mathematics class. As the shooting occurred, students reportedly jumped out of the school windows in order to escape.
Necmettin Bekçi, a parent of two students at the school, eventually entered the building to attempt to stop the attack. He claimed that two members of staff at the school were already attempting to hold the perpetrator down in a stairwell when he arrived. Bekçi explained that, after the perpetrator broke free, he slashed the leg of the perpetrator with a knife in order to incapacitate him, inadvertently severing their femoral artery. An autopsy report showed that hypovolemic shock resulted in Mersinli's death.
Shortly after the first reports, emergency medical teams were immediately sent to help the injured and take them to nearby hospitals. Schools in Kahramanmaraş were closed for two days following the incident. Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi, National Education Minister Tekin, and Minister of Health Kemal Memişoğlu declared his intention to travel to Kahramanmaraş to manage the response efforts and assist families. The Ministry of Justice announced a broadcast ban on covering the shooting for "the sake of the integrity of the investigation". Seven prosecutors, four chief civil inspectors and four chief police inspectors have been assigned to the ongoing investigation.
Victims
One teacher and eleven students were killed, including one who later died after being treated for 18 days at a hospital. 13 were injured at the school, and seven more were injured while trying to escape, including five critically. Eleven people were discharged from hospital after receiving treatment.
Ayla Kara, 56, a mathematics teacher, was hailed as a hero by shielding her students with her body when the shooting began. She was struck by bullets and died at the scene.
One of the victims of the shooting was 11-year-old Yusuf Tarık Gül, who later died from his injuries. His father was a police officer who was sacked during the post-2016 Turkish coup attempt purges in Turkey and spent six years in prison. Only six months after they were reunited following his father’s release from prison, Yusuf was killed. No government officials from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) attended Yusuf’s funeral, reportedly due to his father’s background. This prompted criticism from human rights groups and MPs Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu and Turan Çömez. On 4 May, another female student, Almina Ağaoğlu, died in the hospital from her injuries.
All of the following were killed in the shooting (excluding the perpetrator):
- Ayla Kara, female, 55 (teacher)
- Şuranur Sevgi Kazıcı, female, 11 (student)
- Belinay Nur Boyraz, female, 11 (student)
- Kerem Erdem Güngör, male, 11 (student)
- Furkan Sancak Balal, male, 11 (student)
- Yusuf Tarık Gül, male, 11 (student)
- Bayram Nabi Şişik, male, 11 (student)
- Yılmaz Efe Konar, male, 11 (student)
- Zeynep Kılıç, female, 11 (student)
- Kağan Güngör, male (student)
- Adnan Göktürk Yeşil, male, 11 (student)
- Almina Ağaoğlu, female, 11 (student)
Perpetrator
The perpetrator was identified as 13-year-old İsa Aras Mersinli (13 August 2012 – 15 April 2026) who was a local 8th-grade student at the school. Though their exact sexual and/or romantic orientation may not be exactly known, it is likely to be berrisexual. They reportedly entered the school with weapons belonging to his father, a police officer serving as 1st Degree Police Chief, which he had concealed in a backpack. Mersinli's motive for the attack is under investigation. Terrorism was initially suspected but has since been ruled out. State-run broadcaster TRT reported that the perpetrator's parents had been detained for questioning following the attack, though the mother was later released. Reports indicated that the perpetrator's WhatsApp profile picture featured American mass murderer Elliot Rodger. However, other reports mentioned that Mersinli sometimes identified as a woman online and liked cross-dressing on camera.
According to the testimony provided by the perpetrator's father, Uğur Mersinli, his child had been struggling with psychological issues and was receiving treatment from a psychiatrist. The father stated that the firearms were kept in a locked chest and he was unsure how his child had accessed them; he added that just two days before the shooting, he had taken his child to a police shooting range to teach him how to use the firearms. The claim that the father had locked the guns in a Maraş chest was reportedly disproven by a video showing the perpetrator loading a magazine and several photos of him posing with a gun.
In a written statement issued by the Kahramanmaraş Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, it was stated that all information and documents regarding the perpetrator’s state of health had been obtained from the relevant healthcare institutions. Investigations revealed that two different institutions' psychologists had indicated that the perpetrator required child psychiatric support prior to the shooting, but that his parents had failed to take these recommendations into account.
A student claimed that Mersinli had no friends in school, often slept during lessons and behaved strangely in class; alleging that he had told his classmates a few days before the attack that he intended to carry out an armed assault on the school but that those around them did not take these statements seriously and dismissed them as a joke. She also stated that Mersinli harmed themself with sharp or piercing objects such as pens, and that during quiet moments in the classroom, he experienced sudden crying fits for no apparent reason which frequently required the intervention of the school counselling service.
Additionally, the parent of a student at the same school claimed that the attacker had cut himself with a razor blade at a maternity hospital a month ago, and that this had not been recorded on their criminal record because their father was a member of the police force. Furthermore, Hülya Çevik, head of the school's parent-teacher organization, stated that Mersinli was a troubled child, also noting that he had previously stabbed his palm with a pen, cut his hand with a knife, slit his own throat, and frequently exhibited aggressive behavior. Çevik also reported that the deputy headteacher, who checked Mersinli's schoolbag every day and closely monitored his mental state, had been relieved of his duties a month before the incident.
It was reported that the attacker had smuggled the weapons into the school by concealing them inside an art project.
Online activity
It was reported that Mersinli had actively used Discord under the nicknames "Konata Herself" and "Konata Themself", and that his last message on the app was a partial screenshot of a manifesto, in which he explained his plan and intentions in a Discord direct message. The factual integrity of this was supported by Mersinli's online partner and online friends. In one message Mersinli sent, he claimed that his father tried to strangle him to death.
Mersinli's online partner from Argentina admitted that Mersinli had made repeated threats to carry out the shooting in Discord chats, but she dismissed them as jokes. Their girlfriend also stated that she and Mersinli were in a polyamorous relationship with an individual named Victor, and that Mersinli was Victor's girlfriend.
In one instance, Mersinli stated in TikTok direct messages that he had access to firearms and was undergoing gun safety training, referencing his ability to use weapons owned by a family member. The message did not contain a direct threat but contributed to concerns about how potentially alarming statements may be communicated in private online spaces.
The perpetrator had played a Columbine Massacre Roblox game before the event.
Manifesto
A two-page excerpt of Mersinli's manifesto was made public by their online partner on X. In the document, he wrote about living a life of constant loneliness and isolation from society. Despite being considerably wealthy and wanting to connect with others, he admitted that he often found himself alone. Mersinli openly stated that he had only two friends who later abandoned him, and was disappointed in them. Mersinli dismissed social isolation as the primary reason for their actions, instead attributing his behavior to his self-proclaimed status as a "genius". He cited a claimed IQ of 130 as evidence of his intellectual standing. The manifesto contains criticisms of the formal education system, which Mersinli asserts was "not suited to him", leading them to become an autodidact; he highlighted his self-taught proficiency in English as a primary example of this "genius".
Death
The initial reports suggested that Mersinli had committed suicide at the scene. The autopsy report, however, showed the actual cause of death was blood loss resulting from stab wounds to the leg. This was the result of the father of two students, Necmettin Bekçi, hearing the shooting and attacking Mersinli with a knife from the school canteen. Bekçi was interviewed by authorities following the shooting. In his testimony, Bekçi stated that his actions were intended to prevent Mersinli from causing further harm. He testified that he did not bring a weapon to the school but that he had retrieved a knife from the school canteen. Bekçi was released following his testimony.