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Brutal Attack in Berkin Elvan’s Funeral

The death of 15-year-old Gezi victim Berkin Elvan caused 2 million people from 53 provinces of Turkey to march in mourning and in protest over two days. 

Berkin Elvan, 14 years old boy, who was shot at his head by the police by a tear gas canister on 16th January during the Gezi Park demonstrations. He passed away on 11th of March after 269 days of coma. During his funeral a million people including trade union groups marched from Okmeydanı where Berkin used to live to Şişli/Feriköy Cemetery with slogans of “Thief, Murderer, Erdogan”.

Police intervened in demonstrations in 13 provinces, as at least 52 civilians and 19 policemen were injured and security forces detained 417 people. In Istanbul, Ankara, İzmir and Mersin, marches and protests continued until morning.

While the funeral was still continuing, police used chemical water, gas canisters and plastic bullets in the attack and thousands of people were put in life risk.

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DİSK members left the work and participated the funeral in Istanbul. In other cities DİSK participated ceremonies or organised special events and rallies for Berkin.

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Notes:

According to the date provided by Keyhole, just a single hashtag, #BerkinElvanÖlümsüzdür (#BerkinElvanIsImmortal), was tweeted 11.9 million times. Fifty-seven percent of tweets related to Elvan’s death were retweeted by others.Thanks to such numbers, tweets reached around 70 million people across the world.

Berkin Elvan’s death ‘will not negatively affect economy,’ Turkish PM says. ‘Turkey has overcome all this before,’ Erdoğan said in response to a question from a journalist about the possible economic effects of the unrest since Elvan’s death.

Two dead amid protests after Gezi victim Berkin Elvan’s funeral sweep Turkey. A young man was killed during a clash in Istanbul while a police officer died in the eastern province of Tunceli, allegedly due to the effect of teargas.

Ex-EU Minister Bağış raises eyebrows with ‘necrophiles’ tweet during Berkin Elvan’s funeral. Former EU Minister Egemen Bağış sparked fury as he compared the opponents of the ruling AKP to ‘necrophiles who are targeting the peace process’.

World mourns young Gezi victim Berkin Elvan. Memorial ceremonies were held for the eigth victim of the Gezi Park protests in several cities, including New York, Washington DC, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bielefeld, Berlin, Brussels, The Hague, Dresden, Duisburg, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Helsinki, Cologne, Lausanne, Lisbon, London, Paris, Rotterdam, Stuttgart, Vienna and Warsaw.

HRW has called for justice over Berkin Elvan’s death, reminding that ‘no effective investigation into the police’ was carried out nine months after the 15-year-old fatal injury

 

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