Relatives of Gezi Park victims appeal to ECHR

STRASBOURG – Anadolu Agency

Mücella Yapıcı (C) , who is a spokesperson for the Taksim Solidarity Platform that pioneered the Gezi Park protests and spoke in the name of the around 100 people who gathered before the ECHR courthouse in France’s Strasbourg. AA photo

Relatives of Gezi Park protest victims have appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Oct. 11, before exhausting the domestic options available to them.

Mücella Yapıcı, who is a spokesperson for the Taksim Solidarity Platform that pioneered the Gezi Park protests and spoke in the name of the around 100 people who gathered before the ECHR courthouse in France’s Strasbourg, said they were appealing to the ECHR before the domestic avenues were exhausted.

“We were obliged to bring this issue to the international arena because of the excessive and common breaches to the rights that derive from the European Convention on Human Rights and the universal human rights, and also the blockage of the domestic remedy,” said Yapıcı, who is also the General Secretary of the Chamber of Architects and Engineers’ (TMMOB) Istanbul office. “Compelled by these factors, we appeal to the ECHR before exhausting the domestic remedies.”

Yapıcı said seven people had lost their lives, more than 8,000 people had been injured, of which 14 lost at least an eye, while parks and trees were destroyed during the protests that started as a peaceful sit-in in Istanbul’s last park in the city center but turned into country-wide protests after police’s fierce intervention against the protesters.

The Human Rights Foundation, the Progressive Lawyers Association, and relatives of the victims, Ethem Sarısülük, Ali İsmail Korkmaz and Abdullah Cömert, have added their names to the statement.