Thousands Mourn Slain Kurdish Lawyer Funeral for assassinated Tahir Elci held in Turkey James Tweedie, The Morning Star, London, 30 November 2015 Thousands attended the funeral of assassinated Kurdish lawyer Tahir Elci in Turkey yesterday. The Diyarbakir provincial Bar Association president was killed along with at least one police officer on Saturday while making a press statement about the destruction of a historic mosque in the city's Sur district. Gunmen opened fire from a car just as Mr Elci finished speaking, hitting him once, in the head. Tahir Elci Pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) local official Omer Tastan said that 11 people were also wounded in the attack. Other sources said that two policemen and two journalists were among those injured. A video of the incident from the Dogan news agency showed a group of gunmen hiding behind the minaret of a nearby mosque before the attack. "A person ran towards Tahir Elci, fired and then started to run away," Dogan reporter Felat Bozarslan said. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Interior Minister Efkan Ala claimed that the lawyer was killed in a botched attack by Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) guerillas on police. But the HDP called the act a "planned assassination," vowing: "Thousands more Tahir Elcis will carry on the work in the struggle for law and justice." Addressing mourners yesterday, HDP joint chairman Selahattin Demirtas said Mr Elci was the victim of a "political murder," adding that the lawyer dedicated his life to peace, freedom and brotherhood. The US embassy expressed shock over his death, calling him a "courageous defender of human rights." Mr Elci was arrested last month after challenging the government's position that the PKK is a terrorist organisation. He was awaiting trial on charges of terrorist propaganda at the time of his death. The funeral followed a night of fierce clashes between police and 2,000 protesters in Istanbul over the incident. Police used tear gas and water cannon against the demonstrators in the central Taksim Square, who blamed President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for Mr Elci's murder. Other clashes in Diyarbakir itself met with the same response from police. Mr Elci's assassination follows Thursday's arrest of Cumhuriyet (Republic) newspaper editor Can Dundar and reporter Erdum Gul for exposing government arms shipments to Islamic State in neighbouring Syria. From: http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-2340-Turkey-Thousands-mourn-slain-Kurdi sh-lawyer#.VlvCd3YrK00 -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
