Death of Dilek Doğan

Dilek Doğan (died October 25, 2015 in Istanbul ) was a Kurdish Alevi who was shot dead in Istanbul during a house search by Turkish police. The circumstances of her death sparked heated debates.

incident

On October 18, 2015, armed forces of the Turkish anti-terror police carried out house searches in a total of 16 locations as part of an anti-terror mission ; According to the authorities, to arrest a suspected assassin of the terrorist organization DHKP-C . Even with the family of Dilek Dogan in Istanbul district Küçükarmutlu a house search was made, was shot in the course of Doğan by a police officer. Dilek Dogan, who was still alive, was taken to hospital by her family and resuscitated after a cardiac arrest. After a week in a coma , she died on October 25, 2015 as a result of the gunshot wound.

The statements made by the family and the police about the course of the search and the circumstances that led to the shooting at Dilek Doğan and thus to her death differed greatly. The police officer testified that the brother touched the gun and that the shot was released while the gun was fought. The family, on the other hand, spoke of an unprovoked attack in the apartment after Doğan asked the officers to be careful not to stain the floor with their shoes. A video of the operation, published later, shows that when the emergency services search the apartment without any preceding commotion, a shot is suddenly fired.

Reactions

politics

A delegation from the Istanbul CHP, led by İlhan Cihaner and Hilmi Yarayıcı and accompanied by actress Pelin Batu, visited the Doğan family waiting in front of the hospital and issued a joint press release demanding an investigation into the incident and the confidentiality of the Turkish authorities in the investigation criticized in similar cases.

After Dilek Dogan's death, Sezgin Tanrıkulu , the vice-chairman of the family's CHP , also expressed condolences before the funeral. The funeral itself took place with heavy police action. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said there would be a full investigation into the events. The HDP Vice-Chairman Selahattin Demirtaş also expressed his dismay over Doğan's death.

After the video of the police operation became known, the CHP MP Murat Emir issued a press release in the Turkish parliament in which he compared the Dilek Doğan case with the killing of Ali Ismail Korkmaz and Ethem Sarısülük in the Gezi protests in 2013 and warned against the Turkey threatens to become a police state. CHP chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu gave a speech at a parliamentary group meeting in which he addressed Dogan's death and called for police to clarify.

Honors

In the eastern Anatolian provincial capital of Van , a newly opened urban park was named after Dilek Doğan. The deputy chairwoman of the HDP, Figen Yüksekdağ , attended the opening .

process

An indictment against the shooter was admitted by the 12th Large Criminal Chamber in December 2015. The first hearing of the process took place on February 17, 2016 under strict security measures. Protests broke out in front of the courthouse and 22 demonstrators were arrested. The family's lawyers are also said to have been prevented from entering the building by the police. The prosecutor demanded a prison sentence of between 20 and 26.5 years. At a trial hearing on April 20, 2016, Mazlum Doğan, a brother of Dilek Doğan, was temporarily arrested for threatening a police officer who was heard as a witness in the courtroom. On the third day of the trial on May 30, 2016, there were protests in front of and in the courthouse, during which 19 people were temporarily arrested.

In March 2017, the shooter was sentenced to 6 years and 3 months in prison for the grossly negligent homicide of Dilek Doğan.