Şemdinli incident

The Şemdinli incident occurred on 9 November 2005 when a bookshop in Şemdinli, Hakkari Province, Turkey was attacked with grenades. One person died and several were injured in the attack on the Umut bookshop. The attack was carried out by Turkish Gendarmerie personnel, who were caught in the act by local residents. The men are said to have worked for the Gendarmerie's JITEM intelligence unit. Two hand grenades were thrown, and a further two retrieved from the car of Kaya and İldeniz, which was registered to the local Gendarmerie. In 2010 grenades with the same serial number were found in a house in Erzincan as part of the Ergenekon investigation. The incident has been compared with the Susurluk scandal for the light it casts on the Turkish "deep state".

The incident was preceded by two other terrorist attacks in the town. Five soldiers were killed in a 5 August attack on the Semdinli Gendarme Battalion Command. On 1 November, a 100-kg car bomb injured 67.

According to Abdülkadir Aygan, one of the defendants, Ali Kaya, had previously worked under JITEM commander Cemal Temizöz. Aygan had named him "Mutkili Ali" ("Ali from Mutki").

Two hand grenades were thrown in the attack on the Umut bookshop. One person died and five were injured. The man killed was a passerby visiting his cousin's nearby shoe shop.

Locals pursued the attacker from the scene to a car parked nearby, where two others were waiting. Police intervened to protect the three from the crowd, and detained them. The three turned out to be Turkish Gendarmerie personnel. Local TV showed the locals searching the car and "brandishing weapons and documents they had found in the trunk of the car. These included identity cards indicating that Kaya and Ildeniz were gendarmerie intelligence officers, an apparent death list of alleged PKK sympathizers and diagrams of the home and workplace of the bookshop’s owner, whose name was also on the death list." Two grenades were retrieved from the car, which was registered to the local Gendarmerie. Other items retrieved from the car included rifles, official documents, and "a list with the bombed bookstore marked with a red cross."