Interior Ministry to investigate negligence allegations in killing of Turkish boy by PKK

TRABZON

The Interior Ministry will send a team of inspectors to the Black Sea province of Trabzon to investigate allegations of negligence in the recent killing of a 15-year-old boy by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). 

Eren Bülbül, who was studying at a religious vocational school in Maçka, had informed security forces that PKK militants left a house with supplies on Aug. 11, after which he moved with security forces to indicate possible routes they could have escaped through. He was then killed during clashes between security forces and the militants alongside Gendarmerie Master Sgt. Ferhat Gedik.

Bülbül’s family has complained about the security forces taking the boy to the scene of the clash.

“They took a 15-year-old boy to an area of potential clashes,” his brother Çağlar Bülbül said. 

“If reconnaissance efforts were to be carried out for the security of the village, why was our child taken rather than the village head?” said his relative Aysel Bülbül. 

An investigation has been launched by the Maçka Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, while the ministry has decided to send inspectors to the district for an administrative investigation. 

“I want our prime minister, ministers and authorities to explain why Eren was taken there,” said Eren Bülbül’s mother Ayşe Bülbül, adding that security officers called her son rather than herself when they notified the authorities on the issue.
 
“They were calling Eren all the time. Why were they calling this child? They should have called me but they didn’t,” she said. 

Meanwhile, Gendarmerie Special Forces teams and police officers have been working to apprehend the militants involved in the attack. 

To prevent the militants responsible from leaving the province, a large number of gendarmerie officers and Special Forces police officers have been posted to the border between Trabzon and the neighboring province of Gümüşhane. 

Reinforcements have also been sent from Gümüşhane and the Black Sea province of Giresun to the search efforts, which are being conducted with the support of armored vehicles. 

The authorities have determined that three militants staged the attack, with Trabzon Governor Yücel Yavuz vowing that the militants will be “neutralized no matter what the terrain conditions are.” 

The killed boy’s brother, Olcay Bülbül, has said his only wish is for the PKK militants responsible to be found. 

“Our pain is very great,” he said. 

Meanwhile, a picture showing Eren Bülbül carrying wood on his back when he was 10 years old has been widely shared on social media.