The mother of the young man who died in hospital after being run over by a vehicle in Turkey’s Kurdish-majority city of Cizre (Cizîr) called for justice.
23-year-old Abdulgaffar Dayan was severely injured in the incident on the 24th of January as he was on his way to school, and he died in hospital two days later.
The mayor of Cizre, a state appointed trustee in place of the elected mayor, and the district governor was chased from the house where the family were mourning after the reactions of Abdulgaffar’s relatives when it was revealed that the vehicle which caused the young man’s death belonged to the security detail of the trustee.
Speaking to Mezopotamya News Agency, mother Meryem Dayan called for a rightful punishment of the vehicle’s driver and for a general traffic ban for all armoured police and military vehicles in the neighbourhood.
“It was snowing at the time of the incident. Was the driver trying to make the vehicle fly that he was driving so fast?” she asked.
“Such drivers should be banned from driving. The authorities must make an announcement that those who are involved in such incidents will definitely be punished. They’ve got to find a solution. They haven’t left any kid alive. They have no right to impose so much pain upon people. Take these vehicles off the streets.”
According to a report by the Human Rights Association (IHD) of Turkey, 42 individuals, 20 of them children, were killed by armoured vehicles in Turkey’s Kurdish-majority provinces within the last 13 years.
Miraç Miroğlu, a seven-year-old boy was killed by an armoured vehicle on 3 September 2021 as he was riding his bike near his home in the city of Silopi (Girkê Amo).
