Human Rights Watch: Berkin Elvan's family deserve justice

ISTANBUL

Gülsüm Elvan (C) and Samie Elvan (L) cry after their son die at the hospital in Istanbul, March 11. AFP photo

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called for justice over Berkin Elvan's death, reminding that “no effective investigation into the police” was carried out nine months after the 15-year-old was fatally hit by a teargas canister.

The statement, posted in the “Dispatches” section of the HRW website, condemned the impunity over the incident that cost Elvan's life. 

“There is an urgent need to identify which officers used teargas launchers to determine who shot Berkin and to examine the whole episode in terms of the command responsibility of senior officers. There is an urgent need to identify which officers used teargas launchers to determine who shot Berkin, and to examine the whole episode in terms of the command responsibility of senior officers," the statement said.

HRW also emphasized that Berkin Elvan's death crystallized the brutality of officers against protesters during demonstrations.  

"Police violence against demonstrators is an endemic problem in Turkey; a culture of impunity is entrenched. Berkin Elvan, the boy in the coma who never woke up, has become a symbol of Turkey’s record of police violence and lack of accountability. Berkin and his family deserve justice,” the statement said.

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