Poster with image of death squad killer sold online in Turkey

It has recently come to light in Turkey that posters with images of a notorious death squad killer and a particular type of car which had been used for the abduction and disappearance of Kurdish political activists by state forces are being sold on a popular online shopping platform.

The platform Cicek Sepeti ("Flower Basket" in English) released a statement on late Monday announcing that they took notice upon posts of protest on social media that such an item was on sale, and that they immediately took it off the shelf and cancelled their contract with the seller.

Cicek Sepeti later tried to explain that over 20 million items on the shelves of different sellers are being monitored only "by means of a certain algorithm," and that the item in question had "unfortunately evaded the key words filter."

Printed on the poster, sold for 49.90 TL (approx. $2.6), is a graphic design containing the image of a white Renault station wagon, a car typically used by state forces in operations to abduct and disappear Kurdish activists, and the image of Mahmut Yildirim, AKA Yesil, accused of having served as an executioner in the state's death squads throughout the 1990s and of murdering many Kurdish activists in cold blood.

Separate posters of a white Renault station wagon and Mahmut Yildirim were recently raised on Sunday by the fans of a football club in a game against Kurdish football team Amedspor.