{"id":48255,"date":"2014-03-11T12:03:54","date_gmt":"2014-03-11T10:03:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/?p=48255"},"modified":"2014-03-11T14:06:17","modified_gmt":"2014-03-11T12:06:17","slug":"erdogans-heroes-police-gezi-protests-victim-teenager-berkin-elvan-dead-turkey-breaking-news-48255","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/erdogans-heroes-police-gezi-protests-victim-teenager-berkin-elvan-dead-turkey-breaking-news-48255\/","title":{"rendered":"Erdogan’s heroes Police! Gezi protests victim teenager Berkin Elvan dead \/ Turkey Breaking News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Berkin-Elvan-Dead\"<\/a><\/h1>\n

During Gezi Park protests shot in the head by police 15 years old Berkin Elvan died after 10 months of coma.<\/h1>\n

Berkin Elvan, who has been in a coma since June 2013 after being struck in the head by a gas canister during a police crackdown on protesters, died March 11, his family announced via Twitter.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo our people: We lost our son Berkin Elvan at 7 a.m. in the morning. Condolences to us all,\u201d Elvan’s parents said in the message.<\/p>\n

The young teenager, the eighth person to be killed in the Gezi Park protests, went into a coma after sustaining a head injury from a gas canister as he went to buy bread during a police crackdown in Istanbul\u2019s Okmeydan\u0131 neighborhood last June. Elvan has since become one of the prime symbols violence faced by protesters throughout the nationwide Gezi demonstrations.<\/p>\n

He had only turned 15 in January while still in a coma. A ceremony will be held at a cemevi in Okmeydan\u0131 before the burial in Ferik\u00f6y cemetery later in the day.Scores of people gathered in front of the hospital where Elvan was convalescent for over nine months, in a show of solidarity with the family upon calls on social media.<\/p>\n

\"People<\/a>
People attend a sit-in demonstration after the death of Berkin Elvan as his portraits lay on the ground beside breads in Ankara<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tension rose between a group of demonstrators and the police, which again resorted to tear gas regardless of the fact that the hospital’s entrance was nearby.<\/p>\n

\u201cRiot police arrived in front of the hospital as the funeral was ongoing to be sent to the forensics department. Some people also went that way and protested against the police. A scuffle occurred. The police officers did not restrain themselves at all from using gas. They once again used disproportionate force,\u201d said Republican People\u2019s Party\u2019s (CHP) Istanbul lawmaker Melda Onur, who was participating in the vigil. “Tear gas even entered inside the hospital,” she added.<\/p>\n

Onur also said a child was brought into the hospital after being injured due a tear gas canister.<\/p>\n

Another man, who was going to the hospital to visit his sick wife, was also injured after being hit in his head by a tear gas canister.<\/p>\n

Tributes also poured in under the hashtag #BerkinElvan\u00d6l\u00fcms\u00fczd\u00fcr (“Berkin Elvan is immortal”).<\/p>\n

A silent sit-in protest has also started in central Ankara\u00a0over Berkin Elvan’s death.<\/p>\n

The teenager\u2019s parents were shattered when they joined activists keeping vigil for Berkin.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not Allah who has taken my son away. It is [Prime Minister] Tayyip Erdo\u011fan,\u201d said the mother, G\u00fcls\u00fcm Elvan.<\/p>\n

\"Elvans<\/a>
Elvans mother is torn by grief. For nine months, her son was in a coma, now he has succumbed to his injuries in a hospital in Istanbul.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Erdo\u011fan had memorably praised to police for \u201cheroic action\u201d during the Gezi unrest back in June, despite the fatal victims and serious injuries sustained due to the repeated brutal crackdowns on protesters.<\/p>\n

Lawyers representing the family had said Elvan\u2019s condition worsened over the last week, with his weight dropping to 16 kilos from 45 kilos.<\/p>\n

Elvan suffered an epileptic fit on March 6, his heart stopped a day later, and on March 9 doctors diagnosed an air pocket in his lungs.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis young body resisted for 267 days against the damage caused by the gas canister fired by the police, the same way our people resisted against fascism. But that resistance has been decreasing gradually and the damage to his inner organs is growing due to the fact that his brain functions are very low,” the statement released on March 9 said.<\/p>\n

In a first for a government official, President Abdullah G\u00fcl had contacted the family on March 10 as a police intervention was ongoing against a vigil held in front of the hospital in Istanbul\u2019s Okmeydan\u0131 neighborhood.<\/p>\n

The family has repeatedly slammed officials for protecting the perpetrators and announced that they would be starting a legal process at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), as no effective domestic investigation had been carried out over the last seven months. The officers who took part in the crackdown that cost Elvan’s life are still on duty.<\/p>\n\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During Gezi Park protests shot in the head by police 15 years old Berkin Elvan died after 10 months of coma.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":702,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,63,1,118,101,171,174,194,173,188],"tags":[66088,66080,66083,66085,77166,29397,66081,66082,66087,66077,66084,77182,66079,22762,55397,17662],"class_list":["post-48255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-daily","category-general","category-hot","category-politics","category-turkey","category-turkey-daily","category-turkey-general","category-turkey-headlines","category-turkey-politics","tag-15-years-old-berkin-elvan","tag-berkin-elvan-dead","tag-berkin-elvan-died","tag-berkin-elvan-shot-by-police","tag-breaking-news","tag-erdogan-turkey","tag-gezi-portests-turkey","tag-gezi-protests-victim-berkin-elvan","tag-police-berkin-elvan","tag-teenager-berkin-elvan","tag-teenager-shot-in-head-turkey","tag-turkey","tag-turkey-berkin-elvan","tag-turkey-erdogan","tag-turkey-gezi-protests","tag-turkey-police"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/702"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48255\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}