Turkish singer Hacer Tulu shot dead in an armed attack at nightclub
Turkish singer Hacer Tulu, along with another businessman, was shot at a bar shootout in the tourist town of Bodrum, the city located on Turkey's southwest coast, stretching out to the Aegean Sea. Reports from the local news channels state that four men had opened fire in the Pasha nightclub, where the singer happened to be shot right after she had paid her entry fee. As the club happens to be one of the popular tourist destinations on Barlar Street, the 40-year-old was reportedly shot in a crossfire. Mehmet Ali Surensoy, the other businessman who was shot alongside Tulu, is the entertainment venue owner.
The BBC reported that immediately after the shooting, the attackers drove away from the scene, although four suspects were later detained at the police checkpoint. It also noted that the club where the shooting happened is being referred to as Medusa in several reports. It is one of the popular places buzzing with Western tourists in an area near the seafront in Bodrum.
The Gulf News noted that the singer had enjoyed success for some years, especially for her 2015 ballad 'Omur Torpusu' ('Life Draining'), which got around four million views on YouTube. She is best known for her singles, including 'Cok Selam Soyle' and 'Dili Ballim'. She has over 50,000 followers on her Instagram account. According to a report on Standard.co.uk, there were four attackers who were detained by police in Manisa almost three hours after the attack. Their motive still remains unclear. The police had examined a silver Ford hatchback, as detectives deduct the available CCTV footage.
Hacer Tulu was born in April 1978 to Bosnian Yugoslav immigrants in Izmir and had an older brother, Ozan. She had cosplayed as Harley Quinn during 2017 performance. Being from Turkey, she attended the Anadolu University. She has also collaborated with Turkish pop-folk singer of Kurdish-Zara descent, Yildiz Tilbe. She had been modeling since the late 1990's in the western city of Izmir, where she became a partner in a modeling agency. She is survived by a 15-year-old daughter.
She released her first album in 2014, from where she worked her way into being one of the big names in Turkish music. In July 2017, there was another shooting in Bodrum where a gunman opened fire in two beach clubs and killed a Turkish teenager working as a waiter in one of the clubs. They opened fire in the early hours of Sunday almost 26 times in two nightclubs on the seafront.