Mass protests in Turkey have flared up once again following the death of a boy who died Tuesday night from an injury inflicted by police during last summer’s country-wide wave of protests.
Tens of thousands of protesters filled the streets of Istanbul Wednesday to mourn the death of Berkin Elvan, 15, whose death followed 269 days in a coma after having sustained a blow to the head by a tear gas canister fired by police.
“Berkin’s murderers are the AKP police,” said the protesters in reference to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), whose policies have sparked mass unrest in the country.
“The rage of mothers will suffocate the killers,” some yelled outside the site of Elvan’s funeral. The crowds chanted, “Tayyip! Killer!” and “Everywhere is Berkin, everywhere is resistance” while many held up photos of Elvan.
The funeral followed a night of protests and clashes which spread to 32 towns and cities across the country upon the announcement of Elvan’s death. The protests maintained the same anti-AKP sentiment of last year’s mass protests, which drew international attention and gained momentum in the face of the police’s heavy-handed tactics. Roughly 2.5 million people took part in those protests which were sparked over the course of three weeks in June, demanding Erdogan’s resignation. Over 8,000 people were injured, according to medics.
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“It’s not God who took my son away but Prime Minister Erdogan,” Elvan’s mother told reporters on Tuesday.
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