Families of slain Gezi and Lice protesters in emotional meeting

DİYARBAKIR- Doğan News Agency

Ethem Sarısülük’s sister-in-law Yonca (L) hug Medeni Yıldırım’s mother Fehriye (R) in Diyarbakır's Lice district. DHA photo

The family of the protester who was killed in Ankara, Ethem Sarısülük visited the mother of the demonstrator shot by soldiers in Diyarbakır’s Lice district, Medeni Yıldırım, in the southeastern province July 13.
 
Sarısülük’s brother İkrar and sister-in-law Yonca met with Yıldırım’s mother Fehriye and older brother Ersin, expressing their condolences to each other. They also went together to lay flowers at Yıldırım’s grave in the Kayacık village.
 
Sarısülük was shot by a police officer during the early days of the protests in Ankara. Yıldırım was protesting against the construction of a new gendarmerie post in Lice when he was also shot after the soldiers opened fire at the crowd.
 
İkrar Sarısülük said that they wanted to come to Lice to show their fraternity with Yıldırım’s family. “Ethem didn’t die; he went to the sun, to the infinity. They won’t intimidate us. The lives that we’ll lose will only make us stronger. Long live the fraternity among people,” Sarısülük said.
 
Ersin Yıldırım said that they would seek justice for his brother’s death. “My brother was only protesting against the gendarmerie post. He was massacred while using his most natural right.”
 
Peace and Democracy (BDP) deputy Nursel Aydoğan said that people from Diyarbakır had become reconciled with Istanbul and Ankara during the Gezi protests. “People in Turkey have realized their own peace. People from Diyarbakır have reconciled with İzmir, Istanbul and Hatay during the last one-and-a-half months. That’s why the [ruling Justice and Development Party] AKP’s strength and the state’s strength will not be enough to cut the peace among the people,” Aydoğan said.
 
Sarısülük’s family had participated two days ago in the funeral of the fifth Gezi protester to have died, Ali İsmail Körkmaz, who succumbed to his wounds this week after being in a coma for several weeks in Hatay.