On 13 December 1980, student Erdal Eren was murdered by the Turkish junta in Ankara. In order to carry out the death sentence against him, the age of the then 17-year-old was raised by court decision. The vocational college student was a member of the revolutionary youth association "Yurtsever Devrimci Gençlik Derneği". On 2 February 1980, at the height of the clashes and political murders in Turkey, he took part in a demonstration against the death of his friend Sinan Suner, a student at the Middle East Technical University.

Suner had been shot dead two days earlier by a bodyguard for MHP MP Cengiz Gökçek. There was an exchange of fire between demonstrators and the military police (Jandarma), in which a 19-year-old soldier was killed. A false investigation pointed to Eren as the killer. He was arrested with 23 other people and sentenced to death the same year.

It has never been proven that Erdal Eren was actually the perpetrator. According to the verdict, Zekeriya Önge, the victim, was hit in the back, but Eren shot from the front. The attorney at the time pointed out numerous other inconsistencies. Above all, the autopsy findings did not match the alleged course of events, because Zekeriya Önge was shot at close range, although the distance between Eren and him is said to have been 12.5 meters. In addition, the trajectory was opposite to Eren's position. It was also not forensically clarified whether the bullet even came from Eren's weapon.

Erdal Eren became a symbol of the struggle against the military dictatorship in Turkey. “He will forever be 17 years old,” said the “Revolutionary 78 Federation”, an association of members of socialist organizations who were between 20 and 25 years old at the time of the coup, on the 40th anniversary of his death, and pointed to the parallels between then and nowdays Turkey. “The fascism that decided to execute Erdal Eren at the time is the same that we are still dealing with today. Our country is still a place where rights are trampled and freedoms are destroyed, the voices of the opposition are silenced, students and people end up in prison.”

But Erdal Eren, who despite his young age is regarded as a loyal and strong representative of the revolutionary determination, “indomitable defender of the struggle against fascism”, lives on in the revolutionary-socialist resistance. “We are continuing the task entrusted to us, our efforts are aimed at strengthening cohesion and solidarity with the fraternal peoples of our mother country. We women, children, young people and workers will face the attacks on us together. This is the expression of our attachment to Erdal Eren. The most important task that falls on the friends of Erdal is to defend peace against war.”