Joint statement on the riots in Turkey which broke out on 11 March when a teenage boy
injured by police during the Occupy Gezi protests last year died, by Kara Kizil Istanbul
(Red and Black Istanbul) and Servet Dusmani. ---- Berkin Elvan is Immortal! ---- "I gave
the orders" - Tayyip Erdogan, June 23, 2013. ---- "It is not Allah, but Erdogan who took
my son from me" - Gulsum Elvan, March 11, 2014. ---- 15 year old Berkin Elvan has passed
away this morning (March 11), 268 days after he was shot in the head by the police with a
tear gas canister during the 2013 Gezi rebellion. He was being kept in an induced coma
since the head injury and his condition had taken a turn for the worse a few days ago due
to complications. He was down to 16 kg.'s of body weight when he died. The leftist boy of
the Alevite religious minority is the latest and youngest of the Gezi martyrs.
No government official showed interest in Berkin's status till yesterday, when President
Abdullah Gul managed a lousy phone call to Berkin's father, Sami Elvan, asking if there
was anything he could do. Sami Elvan's only demand of Gul was that he pull back the police
from the hospital vicinity. Police had been harassing Berkin's supporters who were invited
there by the Elvan family. Such harassment included seizing sleeping bags and making
arrests. Police only retreated this morning from the hospital in their vehicles under
pressure from an increasingly angry group of Berkin's supporters, but not before causing
one fresh case of head trauma in an individual, by the same means through which Berkin was
murdered; tear gas canister aimed at the head from a short distance. Said individual's
current health status is stable.
Berkin's suspected murderers, the policemen who were attacking the crowds in the poor and
left-wing neighborhood of Okmeydani where Berkin was injured on June 15 2013 are now
facing charges in court. As per their statements in court so far, the officers, including
their chief who was in charge of the operation, seem to be suffering from collective
amnesia regarding the events of the day, in typical fashion. It is highly unlikely they
will be sentenced in any significant manner, considering the lack of any serious
sentencing or disciplining so far of officials responsible for the prior Gezi protest deaths.
What adds insult to injury is the December revelation that many high-ranking AKP
government members, including ministers and most importantly the prime minister Tayyip
Erdogan himself, have been enriching themselves and their close circles massively through
bribes and other illegal and shadowy activities. EU minister Egemen Bagis, minister of
interior Muammer Guler, environmental and urban minister Erdogan Bayraktar, and minister
of economy Zafer Caglayan were forced to resign upon the scandal.
The criminal investigation targeted the sons of some of these ministers, who were running
the show, and was closing down on Tayyip Erdogan's son Bilal Erdogan, before it was
aborted by Tayyip Erdogan himself through a massive purge and reshuffling of police chiefs
throughout the country and new laws passed in a hurry that crippled and purged the
judiciary. Erdogan has thus rendered himself immune to the law and coupled with his tight
control over the media it is fair to say that he has turned the country into his personal
dictatorship. Leaked audio recordings of phone tap evidence from the aborted corruption
and graft investigation of December have since been floating on the internet, and new
material is still being released daily. This also constitutes one of the main reasons why
the Erdogan government is eager to increasingly censor the internet in Turkey.
The audacity and scale of the criminal enrichment of the children of the ruling political
families of Turkey presents a stark contrast to the fate of the murdered children of the
Gezi rebellion who are of poor and often oppressed minority backgrounds, including Berkin
Elvan.
Streets are bubbling with protest and anger as the police continues to violently attack
people in the same manner that killed Berkin. There is already a photo of a police officer
firing his pistol from a police car, over the heads of a mass of people marching on one of
the Istanbul highways. A small number of lumpen government sympathizers in Ankara have
attacked and wounded a demonstrator with a cleaver (signature weapon of such raging
conservative "shopkeepers").
Protests and mass walkouts are taking place at universities and high schools. Barricades
are going up in left-leaning campuses and poor neighborhoods to defend against police
machinery. Dozens of demonstrations are being called and people are converging on central
districts tonight. Vigils and sit-downs are taking place in various locations. A massive
funeral procession is expected to take place tomorrow on March 12 at noon, amid high tension.
The media is not and cannot be expected to provide proper coverage of the issue and
upcoming events. The world must know the reality of Berkin's death and the reality of the
political situation in Turkey.
There is no justice and there can be no peace!
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