Eight years ago on 5 June, two days prior to the 2015 Turkish general elections, a bomb attack was carried out by Islamic State (ISIS) against the election rally of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in the Kurdish-majority city of Diyarbakır (Amed). Five people lost their lives and hundreds were injured in the attack.
Lisa Çalan, who lost both her legs in the explosion, has spoken out in an interview with JinNews, stating that the attack has not been thoroughly investigated even after eight years.
“I lost both my legs and underwent a lengthy treatment process,” Çalan says reflecting on the impact of the blast on her life. The burden of treatment fell entirely on her shoulders. Unable to receive adequate medical care locally due to its high cost, she had to seek treatment abroad, which resulted in incorrect procedures and encounters with unqualified doctors. These circumstances significantly prolonged her recovery process. Even today, she continues to deal with open wounds, striving for physical improvement, hoping to regain productivity and maintain some semblance of an active life.
“I am here to exist,” says Çalan, expressing her struggle to find her place within society, both in terms of her immediate environment, her family, the streets and the political realm.
Çalan points out how everything changed dramatically after the incident. She mentions that during the peace process, Kurds were more visible on the streets, raising their voices and nurturing hopes for peace. However, following the 5 June attack, the situation deteriorated rapidly, plunging into urban warfare and a larger conflict. Many of Çalan’s friends were forced to leave the country, some were arrested, and others lost their lives.
Pointing to the rise of the HDP and the excitement of the people at the time, Çalan says, “They wanted to crush our hope and resilience. But it only led to a series of subsequent explosions.”
Çalan also says that in the aftermath of the bombing, the families of the victims and the wounded felt alone and unheard, especially during the trial process, and suggests that many institutions and parties were lacking in this regard. Despite understanding that the end of the peace process and the series of other deadly attacks that followed the bombing have also undermined and immobilised institutions and parties, she still calls for self-criticism to make amends to the families and support them.
“The case was shelved,” says Çalan, emphasising that justice had yet to be served. She says that the attacker was punished, but this was not enough, and that the prosecution of the police officers who were in the field at the time remained inconclusive because there was not enough public attention. “We should never give up on justice,” she says. “The system doesn’t provide it because it’s all monolithic. The decision comes from one man and everything is made dependent on him. Justice is nowhere to be found now.”
