Berkin Elvan


Berkin Elvan was a 15-year-old Kurdish–Turkish boy who was hit on the head by a tear-gas canister fired by a police officer in Istanbul during the June 2013 anti-government protests in Turkey. He died on March 11, 2014, following a 269-day coma. Lawyers representing the family said Elvan's condition worsened over the last week of his life, with his weight dropping to 16 kg from 45 kg. Widespread demonstrations erupted following Berkin's death.
He was buried at the Feriköy Cemetery, Istanbul.

Investigation

On 12 March 2014, four police officers testified for the ongoing investigation concerning the case of Berkin Elvan’s injury during the Gezi protests. Overall, 18 police officers have testified as suspects under the investigation so far, including these four.

Protests

Following Elvan's death, protests erupted throughout Turkey in Adana, Adıyaman, Antalya, Ankara, Ardahan, Bursa, Bolu, Çorum Düzce, Edirne, Gaziantep, İstanbul, İzmir, Konya, Hatay, Malatya, Sivas, Şanlıurfa, Şırnak Kayseri Dersim, Tokat, Zonguldak and worldwide in cities such as Nuremberg, London, Paris, Vienna, Helsinki, Strasbourg, Stockholm, New York City, Boston, Washington DC, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bielefeld, Berlin, Brussels, Den Haag, Dresden, Duisburg, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Cologne, Lausanne, Lisbon, Rotterdam, Stuttgart, Warsaw, Seattle, Pennsylvania, Toronto. His funeral was held in Istanbul on March 12 and was attended by thousands of people, many of whom had never heard of the boy prior to the incident.

Reactions

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan claimed that the boy was a "member of a terrorist organization" as he had his face covered by a scarf.
In March 2014, Maoist rebels attacked a police station in revenge for Elvan's killing.
On 31 March 2015, suspected members of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front took prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz hostage on the sixth floor of the Istanbul Çağlayan Justice Palace. They demanded that the police announce the names of four members of the security services who they said were connected to the death of Berkin Elvan. The police negotiated with the gunmen for six hours, but eventually stormed the courthouse "because of gunshots heard from inside the prosecutor's office". The two gunmen died during the operation, while the prosecutor was badly wounded and later died of his injuries.