Turkey Gezi Park families establish Platform

22 January 2014 

ISTANBUL | 22-01-2014 | The families of the protesters killed in the police crackdowns during the Gezi Park protests and of those who were injured has established an association called “Gezi Martyrs and Wounded Platform”.
The platform was set up to ask justice and truth into the violence in Gezi Park but also to campaign for the ban of the use of tear gas and rubber bullets by riot police.
At the meeting was the elder brother of Mehmet Ayvalıtaş, the first protester to die after being hit by a car while running from the police.
The parents of injured teenager Berkin Elvan were also there: Elvan,15, is in a coma, due to a head injury sustained from a gas canister fired by police as he went to buy bread during a crackdown in Istanbul’s Okmeydanı neighborhood last June.
Five protesters, Ayvalıtaş, Ahmet Cömert, Ethem Sarısülük, Ali İsmail Korkmaz and Ahmet Atakan were killed during the Gezi Park protests in different places.
Another young protester, Medeni Yıldırım, was shot during a protest against the building of a new gendarmerie post in Diyarbakır’s Lice district.
According to the Turkish Medical Association (TTB), more than 8,000 injuries were reported during the demonstrations.
(ANF)
AHM-ATİK News Centre