Gezi victim Ali İsmail Korkmaz to be commemorated with statue

ESKİŞEHİR – Doğan News Agency

The statue of the 19-year-old victim will be erected next Nov. 30 in front of a shopping mall located nearby Eskişehir's city center. DHA photo

An association in Eskişehir has sculpted a statue of Ali İsmail Korkmaz, a protester who died after being beaten by plainclothes men during the height of the Gezi protests.
 
The statue of the 19-year-old university student from Hatay will be erected next Nov. 30 in front of a shopping mall located nearby the city center, a member of the association Thought Clubs Federation (FKF) told Doğan news agency Nov. 15.
 
“We will erect Ali İsmail Korkmaz’s statue to keep his memory alive for better days and prove that it can never be cut from Eskişehir, persisting against those who want to erase his struggle with lies and a number of intrigues,” said Cansu Çıra, also a student of the local Anadolu University, the same university Korkmaz attended.
 
“Keeping Ali İsmail’s memory alive and continuing his struggle is an obligation for us students,” she said.
 
The statue’s palms were designed to serve as a birdbath.
 
Korkmaz died on July 10 after spending 38 days in a coma induced by the savage beating, which was caught on film from the cameras in the vicinity of a nearby hotel. His death sparked outrage all across Turkey, throwing more fuel into the fire in a context in which protesters were denouncing the excessive violence used by security forces against demonstrators.
 
Eight men, including four police officers, are facing jail time over the murder of Korkmaz. The case has recently triggered a fresh controversy after the Justice Ministry approved the request to move the trial to Kayseri, a city located more than 500 kilometers from Eskişehir, citing security reasons.