Slain Kurdish lawyer commemorated at the murder scene

A Kurdish lawyer and activist who was killed seven years ago in Turkey’s southeast city of Diyarbakir was commemorated in the city as rights groups urged once again the jurisdiction to identify the perpetrators of the murder.

Tahir Elci, a human rights defendant and the president of the bar association of Turkey’s southeast city Diyarbakir, was shot and killed on November 28, 2015 in the city while talking to journalists during a press briefing, when a shootout took place between police and PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) militants.

As part of the commemoration, Elci’s family along with hundreds of lawyers from Turkey’s southeast cities as well as deputies from pro-Kurdish HDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party) and representatives of non-governmental organizations gathered in front of the Diyarbakır Courthouse and marched to the Four-Legged Minaret in Surici district, where Elci was shot.

There, Nahit Eren, the current bar association of Diyarbakir emphasized the injustices carried out during the trial and said that although 7 years have passed since the murder, the perpetrators have still not been identified and punished.

"There is no murder that the state will not enlighten, there are murders that the state does not enlighten," Eren said.

Later, Turkan Elci, Elci's wife and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Tahir Elci Foundation recited a poem she had written for her late husband.

The investigation into the killing of Tahir Elci has seen a series of irregularities as seven years passed even without identifying the perpetrator.

The crime scene investigation was carried out approximately five months after the murder and the investigation could be completed in resulting the launch of a lawsuit in 2020.

The indictment revealed that the security cameras on the street did not record the moment of the murder. Police footage also had a 12-second loophole.

Nevertheless, the UK-based Forensic Architecture organization prepared a report which concluded that the bullet that killed Elci was fired by one of the three police officers that was involved in the shootout.