Berkin Elvan

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Berkin Elvan on a drawing

Berkin Elvan (born January 5, 1999 in Turkey , † March 11, 2014 in Istanbul ) was a Turkish youth who was injured on June 16, 2013 during the protests in Turkey and died after a nine-month coma from a gunshot wound.

Life

According to his family, Berkin Elvan from the Istanbul district of Okmeydanı was out shopping for bread in the early morning of June 16, 2013. Although he moved cautiously because of the dispute over Gezi Park , he came across police officers. A tear gas grenade they fired hit him in the back of the head. He was admitted to a hospital in the Şişli district , where he never woke up from his coma and finally died on March 11, 2014. Berkin only weighed 16 kg in the end. He was the eighth person killed in the protests. Human Rights Watch made an urgent call for an investigation into the circumstances that led to his death.

After Elvan's death, hundreds of thousands protested in several major Turkish cities, according to some estimates up to two million people, and at least two people were killed. A policeman died of a heart attack after being exposed to strong tear gas, and a 22-year-old was shot dead by supporters of the DHKP-C in Istanbul . Numerous people were injured and more than 150 people were arrested.

Berkin Elvan was laid out in the presence of thousands of people as a member of the Alevi minority in the Cemevi of Okmeydanı and was buried in the Feriköy cemetery in the Şişli district.

While the then President Abdullah Gül condoled the family after Berkin's death, the then Prime Minister Erdoğan claimed that the deceased boy was a "terrorist". Photos of a hooded youth circulating on the Internet are said to represent Berkin Elvan.

In an obituary in the taz , the journalist Deniz Yücel Berkin placed Elvan in a “story of blood and tears” in Turkey and spoke of young people who “die without even falling in love”.

aftermath

In April 2016, the Turkish consulate in Geneva asked the local city administration to remove an exhibition photo. In it Erdoğan was held responsible for Elvan's death. A banner next to a portrait of the boy said: “Je m'appelle Berkin Elvan, la police m'a tué sur l'ordre de Premier Ministre” (“My name is Berkin Elvan, the police killed me on the orders of the Turkish Prime Minister”) ). The quote alludes to Erdoğan's statement about the Gezi Park movement that he personally gave the order for the police operations.

In March 2015, two members of the DHKP-C held Mehmet Selim Kiraz hostage in the central justice building in Istanbul, who was the public prosecutor involved in the investigation into the police in the Berkin Elvan case. After nine hours, the hostage-taking was violently ended by the police. The hostage-takers were killed. Kiraz died in the hospital.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Hasnain Kazim : Police violence at Gezi protest: Turkish boy dies after nine months in a coma , Spiegel-Online, March 11, 2014, accessed on March 14, 2014.
  2. Emma Sinclair-Webb: Turkey - Justice for Berkin Elvan , accessed March 15, 2014.
  3. Frank Nordhausen / Timur Tinç: Erdogan pours fuel on the fire , accessed on March 15, 2014
  4. Binlerce kişi Berkin için Okmeydanı Cemevi'nde toplanıyor , Cumhuriyet, March 12, 2014, accessed on March 15, 2014.
  5. a b Deniz Yücel : A feeling of helplessness , the daily newspaper, March 11, 2014
  6. Hasnain Kazim: Erdogan calls dead boy a "terrorist" , Spiegel-Online, March 14, 2014, accessed on March 15, 2014.
  7. ^ Turkey calls for removal of an exhibition photo in Geneva , Tagesspiegel, April 25, 2016.
  8. Ismail Küpeli: Why is there so much support for the perpetrators? , Vice, April 2, 2015.