Main opposition CHP deputy calls for ‘justice for Gezi victim Berkin Elvan’

ANKARA

CHP deputy Hüseyin Aygün (3rd L) held a press conference with the father of a 14-year-old Berkin Elvan (2nd L). DHA photo

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy Hüseyin Aygün held a press conference with the father of a 14-year-old, who is still in a coma after sustaining a head injury from a gas canister during a police crackdown in the Gezi Park protests in June.

Tunceli deputy Aygün called on the authorities to investigate how Berkin Elvan was hit in the head.

“Berkin has been in coma for 191 days. He did not open his eyes for three seasons and did not hold his mother’s hand,” Aygün said on Dec. 23. “[The family’s] lawyer filed a complaint nine days after [Berkin] was hit, but after all this time, not a single police officer was investigated.”

Berkin’s father, Sami Elvan, in tears, said: “They should respond to this: Whoever hit my son should be tried.”

Elvan was not a protester but an innocent bystander who was attacked after stepping out to buy bread during a police intervention in Istanbul’s Okmeydanı neighborhood on June 16. He has since undergone three separate operations as a result of serious injury sustained from the attack.

A witness, Sunay Yıldız, said: “We are not here to beg for justice, we want justice. Berkin was not at an age to be involved in the protests.”