Ankara Governor Vasip Sahin's Office said in its statement that "suspects related to the incident were immediately detained and the required legal procedure will be carried out as per the Public Prosecutor's instructions."
The governor did not reveal how many people were detained, but a statement by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) claims three suspects were taken into custody.
Some, including pro-Kurdish media and politicians, have claimed that Baris was stabbed for listening to Kurdish music on his balcony to the botherment of the three perpetrators.
The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) took this line, blaming the AKP for stoking racial tensions.
“The racist mindset that murdered Baris is nourished by the AKP government’s policies targeting the Kurdish language everywhere. We will continue to sing our songs against this mindset & stand with the oppressed,” the party tweeted Monday.
Meanwhile, AKP spokesperson Omer Celik slammed those who took the narrative of Kurdish music provoking the incident, accusing them of being part of a "provocation network."
"We curse both those who brutally attacked him and those who try to exploit the incident as a racist one," tweeted Celik.
The governor's office denied the claims that Kurdish music prompted the crime, claiming that a fight broke out over "music being played loudly and in a disturbing fashion," according to the statement given to police by a friend of the victim, initials B.A.
“Regarding the incident where a man was stabbed to death on Sunday, intentional and false claims have been spread on social media,” it said, adding that suspects have been arrested and an investigation launched.
Shawkat Harki, Rudaw’s reporter in Ankara, says that one of the suspects, aged under 18, was released after being confirmed “innocent” by police.
Many took to social media with the hashtag #BarisCakan in a show of solidarity with the stabbing victim.
Nihat Cakan, father of Baris, told state-owned media Anadolu Agency (AA) on Monday that his son was killed after one of his friends got into an argument with three other people.
“Ten minutes before the adhan [the Islamic call to prayer] was called, he performed ablution. He asked me when the prayer was scheduled and I told him that it was in ten minutes. A friend of his from the neighborhood called him, asking him to go out. I asked him not to go out, but he said that it would only take him two minutes,” said the victim’s father.
“He left and 10 to 15 minutes later his friend called me, asking if Baris had returned him. I told him that he had not. Then, he [his friend] added that they had fought [with some people] and he ran away, but had lost Baris,” added the father.
Kurds in Turkey have faced discrimination for their language and culture for decades, and their politicians, activists and journalists have been jailed on various charges, including on terror-related ones.
“There is a casual, every-day racism against Kurds in Turkey,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) Turkey Researcher Emma Sinclair-Webb told Rudaw English on Monday.
“The Turkish government's continual association of the HDP and Kurdish activists with terrorism has helped stoke racist sentiment,” she added.
“While the individual circumstances of this case have yet to be investigated, hateful attacks of this kind of course reflect a toxic political climate.”
The incident has drawn comparisons to unraveling civil rights protests in the United States over the killing of African-American man George Floyd, who died when a white policeman drove his knee into the back of Floyd’s neck while arresting him.
Reporting by Karwan Faidhi Dri and Shawn Carrie.
