The Amed Bar Association remembered its chairman, Tahir Elçi, who was shot five years ago. Numerous people gathered in front of the justice building in the northern Kurdish provincial capital, including the widow Türkan Elçi, the HDP chairman Mithat Sancar, the KCD chairman Berdan Öztürk, the DBP chairwoman Saliha Aydeniz, the bar association chairman Cihan Aydin, the ÖHD chairman Bünyamin Şeker as well as representatives of the medical association, the trade union federation KESK and bar associations from other provinces. The crowd ran from the justice building behind a banner with the Kurdish and Turkish inscription “We won’t forget you” to the crime scene in the old town district of Sûr, where on November 28, 2015 the fatal shots were fired in front of the famous “four-legged minaret”.
There, the chairman of the Bar Cihan Aydin said in a speech: “We have been looking for the murderers of Tahir Elçi for five years. You are protected by a massive armor of impunity. ”The Bar Association has called for justice in front of the judicial building every week until the trial opened on October 21. At the beginning of the trial, however, it became clear that the state had no interest in investigating the crime and convicting the perpetrators, said Cihan Aydin: “We will continue to fight against the policy of impunity and attempts to cover up.” There is no legal security in Turkey more, it has now become routine that apartment doors are broken down and dozens of people arrested every morning. The lawyer spoke of the “deafening silence of the judiciary” in the face of torture, murder, femicide, child abuse and environmental degradation.
Even a peaceful solution to the Kurdish question is still much further away today than during Tahir Elçi’s lifetime, Aydin continued: “The matter is completely left to the security bureaucracy. The lack of political solution orientation continues to claim human lives. Freedom of expression and the freedom of the press are under constant serious threat. Litigation has affected thousands of people for sharing their thoughts through social networks and other means of communication. Dozens of journalists who have done their job in accordance with their professional ethics are in prison. The prisons have become permanent homes for politicians, people active in civil society and the media. Dozens of prisoners die every year because they are not treated medically. “
Aydin emphasized that the legal profession was also subject to increasing repression: “Lawyers are arrested, arrested and punished for their professional activities.” However, there are thousands of Tahir Elçi colleagues who are resolutely continuing his fight for justice and human rights. “Your dream of a democratic, free and peaceful life is also our dream. We will continue to defend your and our dreams and fight for them. “
After the speech, carnations were placed on the minaret.
Wer war Tahir Elçi?
Tahir Elçi came from Cizîr (Cizre) in Şirnex. He was one of the founders of the Foundation for Human Rights in Turkey (TİHV) and was active both in the human rights association IHD and within Amnesty International (ai). Tahir Elçi has not only conducted proceedings for victims of human rights violations domestically, but has also represented many of them before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). He himself was exposed to state prosecution from the very beginning of his legal practice. A few weeks before he was murdered, he criticized the government’s role in cracking down on peaceful protests. Elçi said: “The PKK is not a terrorist group. While some of its actions may be called that, it is an armed political movement with significant support. ”This sparked a wave of lynch calls and death threats against him. He was arrested and subsequently charged with “propaganda for a terrorist organization”.
Two days after Tahir Elçi’s death, the HDP submitted a request, supported by the CHP, to the Turkish parliament to set up a commission of inquiry into the murder of the lawyer. The application was rejected by the ruling party AKP and the ultra-nationalist MHP and did not find a majority. After Elçi’s death became known, there were demonstrations in many cities in Northern Kurdistan and Turkey. In Istanbul, the participants shouted: “You cannot kill us all”, whereupon the demonstration was broken up by the police using massive force. Less than 48 hours later, more than 150,000 people attended his funeral.
To this day unsolved murder
The murder of Tahir Elçi has not yet been resolved. The Turkish government blamed the PKK for the attack. The research group “Forensic Architecture” from Goldsmiths University in London came to a different conclusion. Through a 3-D reconstruction, the research group found two new suspects in the case of the murdered lawyer. The fatal shot was therefore not fired by a member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, but with a high degree of probability by a police officer.
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