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A witness and a victim of the policy of impunity for government officials in Turkey appeared before a panel of judges and observers in the ‘Turkey Tribunal,’ being held in Geneva, Switzerland. It is a European based initiative aimed at assessing and reporting upon human rights violations in Turkey.
Ercan Kurkut, the brother of Kemal Kurkut – who was shot by the police at close range during the 2017 Newroz celebrations in Diyarbakır (Amed) – spoke about the incident on the third day of the proceedings of the ‘Turkey Tribunal.’
“Kemal was killed by the police in the morning, during the 2017 Newroz celebrations,” he said. “The city administration of Diyarbakır released a statement to the press after a couple of hours that a live suicide bomber was ‘neutralised’ as he tried to enter the celebration grounds. The immediate reaction of the police following the ‘incident’ was to seize the images that had been taken by journalists, photographers and camera crews at the crime scene. On the next day, a journalist, dear Abdurrahman Gök, who could foresee this, managed to hand the images he took to the press. So, it came to light that Kemal wasn’t a suicide bomber, but the incident was actually an execution.”
Emphasising that the suspects were later released while the only person on trial has been the journalist who took the pictures – thereby exposing the crime – Ercan Kurkut said everything was actually all too clear in the pictures.
“Even a five-year-old kid would show you the killer if he saw the pictures. There is only one person who’s been on trial since this incident. It is dear Abdurrahman Gök, who handed the images to the press. There’s nobody else on trial anymore.”
The journalist who took the pictures of the incident, Abdurrahman Gök, is on on trial on the charge of ‘being a member of a terrorist organisation.’ A court session of the trial is due to commence on 30 September 2021.
