11 detained at anti-ISIL protest in western Turkey

İZMİR

Eleven people were detained in the western Turkish city of İzmir on March 11 while commemorating Ivana Hoffman, the first female western fighter who died while fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria.

Demonstrators gathered in the Alsancak neighborhood to erect a tent in memory of Ivana Hoffman, a 19-year-old German citizen fighting with Syrian Kurdish militiamen who was killed in northeastern Syria on March 7. Police asked the group to disperse, saying the demonstration was unwarranted, before detaining 11 people and removing the tent and posters, Doğan News Agency reported.

In a separate incident in the city, four university students have been detained for insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan while planting trees at Ege University. The detentions came after police reviewed the security camera footage of the event and the four students were detained while leaving the school.

Scores of people in Turkey have been detained or have testified for “insulting” Erdoğan over the past few months. Defendants include prominent journalist Can Dündar, former Miss Turkey Merve Büyüksaraç, singer-turned-Twitter-activist Atilla Taş, and several teenagers.