Berkin Elvan is the youngest victim of the Gezi uprising of 2013. He was 14 when he was seriously injured by a gas cartridge fired by police on the fringes of the protests and spent 269 days in a coma before he died nine years ago today.
Berkin Elvan was 14 years old and only went to get bread when he was hit in the head by a tear gas grenade during the Gezi protests in Istanbul in June 2013. After 269 days in a coma, he succumbed to his injuries on 11 March 2014 at the age of 15. On the ninth anniversary of his death, many people gathered at Feriköy cemetery in Istanbul's Şişli district on Saturday to remember Berkin Elvan.
"If my boy were still alive, he would be 24 years old today," said Berkin's mother, Gülsüm Elvan. "But he was taken from life. We are angry. Angry because we are still waiting for justice. Angry because innocent children are still dying, whether at the hands of the police or under the rubble of houses that were not built to withstand earthquakes. Our only hope is that those responsible are prosecuted and justice is done.”
Berkin's father, Sami Elvan, criticised the fact that the police officer, Fatih Dalgalı, who fired the grenade at his son, is still at liberty. The shooter was sentenced to more than 16 years in prison in June 2021, eight years after the attack on Berkin Elvan. As the decision has not been confirmed by the Court of Cassation, Turkey's highest court of appeal, he is still at large.
