Suspect in Elçi murder killed in Diyarbakır clash with security forces

DİYARBAKIR – Doğan News Agency

DHA Photo

An outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militant who was identified as one of the suspects that killed two police officers before running down a street just prior to the murder of Diyarbakır Bar Association head Tahir Elçi on Nov. 28, 2015, has been reported to be among those killed in a clash with the security forces in Sur on March 13.

The Diyarbakır Prosecutor’s Office said Mahsun Gürkan, who was identified as one of the two suspects that killed police officers Ahmet Çiftaslan and Cengiz Erdur, was among seven people killed in Sur.

The incident in which Elçi was killed occurred when a taxi carrying Gürkan and another militant was stopped by police in Sur. 

Çiftaslan and Erdur were killed by the militants as two of them, including Gürkan, ran away to the street where Elçi was giving a speech before being shot dead.

Seven alleged militants were stuck in the wreckage of a building on Hacı Hamit Street in the Savaş neighborhood of Sur on March 13.

Security forces have yet to conclude whether Elçi’s killing was an assassination or whether he was killed during the clash between the police and militants. Elçi, a lawyer and a human rights activist, had been receiving death threats.