ANKARA: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday a teenage boy who died from injuries sustained during anti-government protests last year, was a thug with links to a “terrorist organisation”.
“His family claims he was out to buy bread, but no such thing,” said Erdogan during an election campaign rally in the southeastern town of Gaziantep.
Berkin Elvan spent 269 days in a coma and died aged 15 at an Istanbul hospital on Tuesday after being hit in the head by a tear gas canister fired by police as mass anti-government protests swept Istanbul last June.
Elvan’s story gripped the nation and became a symbol of the heavy-handed tactics used by police to rein in the biggest protests that Erdogan had faced since coming to power in 2003.
Erdogan said the boy had fired “steel bullets” at the police and that he had not been targeted by riot police.
“This youth had been taken in by a terrorist organisation,” said Erdogan, without identifying the group. “Police could not know that he was 14 as he had covered his face,” the premier claimed.
Erdogan on Thursday accused opponents of trying to stir up chaos ahead of key local elections on March 30, after hundreds of thousands of people turned out across the country Tuesday and Wednesday to mourn the boy’s death.
AFP
