Man who spray painted Atatürk statues detained

A man who attacked and spray painted three busts of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey, in the northwestern province of Tekirdağ has been caught after police surveillance of some 2,000 hours of CCTV footage.

"The man making provocations over Atatürk has been detained," said Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu in a Twitter post late March 31, thanking the police.

On March 28, Atatürk busts in three different schools were sprayed and some slogans were written on the buildings' walls in the Marmaraereğlisi district of the province.

According to the police sources, in two days, units monitored over some 2,000 hours of CCTVs in the district and late March 31 caught the perpetrator at his home.

Police identified the man only by his initials, G.D.

The paint he used in the attacks and some handwritten documents against Atatürk were also found in the perpetrator's house, the police sources said.