Deaths by armored vehicle crashes ‘not a coincidence, but result of a planned practice’

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The Progressive Lawyers' Association (ÇHD), Lawyers for Freedom Association (ÖHD) and Human Rights Association (İHD) İzmir branches have staged a protest for 23-year-old Abdulgaffar Dayan, who was hit by a Ranger armored vehicle on his way to the course and lost his life in Cizre district of Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeastern province of Şırnak.

Holding a press statement in front of the İzmir Courthouse in the Aegean province today (January 28), rights defenders and lawyers said:

"We call on judicial authorities to conduct an effective investigation and we call on political power holders and competent authorities to bring the use of armored vehicles in living spaces to an immediate halt."

Speaking during the press statement, lawyer Velat Zeren recalled that Abdulgaffar Dayan was a relative of 11-year-old Cemile Çağırga, who was shot to death in the fire opened from an armored vehicle in front of her house on September 7, 2015 and whose deceased body was kept waiting in a freezer for a week because no permission was given for her burial.

'Individual appearances of a systematic massacre'

Lawyer Zeren continued his speech as follows:

"The policies of political power holders deprive people even of their most basic rights. The Human Rights Foundation of Turkey and Human Rights Association have prepared a report on the violations of rights committed in Turkey as a result of armored vehicle crashes in Kurdistan.

"This report reveals the toll of deaths and injuries by armored vehicle crashes. As the report shows, the atrocity faced by Kurdish people stemming from the violations of right to life caused by armored vehicle crashes has become the individual appearances of a systematic massacre.

"The murders by armored vehicles are a part of the policies of annihilation and assimilation targeting Kurdish people and the occurences are not coincidences but the results of a planned practice.

"In at least 76 armored vehicle crashes that occurred between 2008 and 2021, 42 Kurds, including 20 children, lost their lives. In the last 4 years, 50 people, including 14 children, have been wounded and 18 people, including nine children, have lost their lives."

'Take these vehicles out of living spaces'

Further in his speech, lawyer Zeren underlined that the background of these murders is not questioned and, in fact, the people who lost their lives face accusations while perpetrators are acquitted.

He stressed that it is "not possible for them as human rights organizations to stay silent in the face of these planned massacres."

Concluding his remarks, lawyer Velat Zeren said:

"We recall that it is a must to abandon the current government policies that treat the peoples of Turkey in general and especially Kurdish people in particular hostilely and to readopt a mindset of governance in compliance with universal legal norms as soon as possible.

"And we would like to indicate that we will follow up the incident where our citizen named Abdulgaffar Dayan's right to life was violated.

"This is our call to the judicial authorities: An effective investigation must be conducted into the deaths caused by law enforcement officers and stemming from armored vehicle crashes in violation of the right to life and the policy of impunity must be brought to an end.

"This is our call to the political power holders and competent authorities: Put an immediate halt to using armored vehicles in living spaces."

CLICK - Man dies after being hit by armored vehicle in Şırnak

CLICK - TİHV: At least 18 people killed in armored vehicle crashes in four years

(HA/SD)