Marmaris wildfire may be close to being contained: Minister

The arsonist who started the wildfires late on June 21 in the southwestern province of Muğla's Marmaris district was detained late on June 23 and arrested early June 24.

The 34-year-old Sacit Ayhan admitted that he started the fires after getting furious about a "commercial dispute inside the family."

"My family was going to give me land. But then, they renounced. Then we quarreled," Ayhan said in his first police testimony.

"Under the influence of alcohol, I bought gasoline in plastic bottles, went to the forest and started the fire," he added.

Early on June 23, the second day of the fight against the wildfires, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said a suspect was identified. Hours after, the minister noted that he was captured at the Küfre Bay, where he started the fires.

According to local reports, he was drunk when he was nabbed and had two plastic bottles filled with 5 liters of gasoline in each.

Just after the fires broke out, the security units found an abandoned motorcycle at the Küfre Bay. From the plate number, the police identified the suspect who has five different criminal records.

His mobile phone gave the last signal at Küfre Bay at 11:30 p.m. on June 21, some three hours after the fires broke.

While monitoring the suspect's social media accounts, the police saw a video on his Facebook account showing him threatening his family members with a "property lawsuit."

Security units worked in two teams and questioned nearly 4,000 people and searched vehicles before they found the culprit Ayhan.

In his first testimony, Ayhan said he wanted to kill himself by "jumping into the fire."

"But, I could not make that bold step. The fires got bigger in a short time. I ran away with the...