64-year old woman passes away after spending 159 days in coma due to police tear gas

İsmail Saymaz ISTANBUL / Radikal

Elif Çermik was photographed as he was attending a rally on Dec. 22, 2013, to denounce mega-projects in Istanbul.

Police tear gas has claimed another victim as a 64-year-old woman who was sent into a coma by police during a crackdown in Istanbul last December passed away May 30.

Elif Çermik spent 159 in coma after a heart attack she sustained due to the effects of tear gas, doctors said.

Accompanied by her husband, Çermik attended a rally together with the People’s Houses (Halkevleri) held by the city planner chambers on Dec. 22, 2013, to denounce mega-projects in Istanbul, including the deforestation of the northern parts of the city for the construction of the third bridge and the third airport.

Çermik gave an interview ahead of the police attack with Çapul TV, the television arm of news portal sendika.org founded during the Gezi protests, as she was holding a banner that read “Enough.”

She told Çapul TV’s reporter that she wanted to live in a “beautiful country” in the future, only moments before the police assault that resulted in her death.

Çermik will be laid to rest on May 31 – a date marking the first anniversary of the Gezi protests as well as the third anniversary of the death of another famous tear gas victim, Metin Lokumcu – at Sarıyer’s Kilyos cemetery.