Attack on High Security Checkpoint Protest in Lice, Two Dead

Police and soldiers attacked with tear gas in the evening those protesting the construction of police stations and high security police checkpoints [kalekol] in Lice for the past 15 days. They then switched to the use of firearms. 

Two Lice residents by the name of Ramazan Baran (24) and Baki Akdemir (50) died. Two people, one being female were injured, hospitalized and continue to receive treatment. Baran was shot with two bullets to the back according to the preliminary autopsy report. 

"The soldiers raked us with bullets. Right now we’re searching for our funerals and injured in the area. The losses are heavier than they say," Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Lice District Head İbrahim Işık told Nûçe TV.

It was reported that 19-year-old Abdullah Akkoyun, shot from the neck, was taken in surgery, and that the other casualty hospitalized was a soldier. 

Bulanık - Varto road closed, Protest in Gazi Neighborhood

A protest was staged in Istanbul’s Gazi Neighborhood upon news of the Lice deaths. A group did a demonstration in support of Lice in Istanbul’s Kadıköy Altıyol. The public closed to traffic the road between the Bulanık and Varto districts of Muş province at the Koli Baba Mountainsides around the Alparslan 1 Dam.

KCK’s declaration

KCK Execution Council Co-Presidency made a declaration about the military attack against the public protesting the construction of new police stations in Diyarbakır’s Lice district, which killed two people. 

“The Kurdish public will never recoil against the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) massacres and battle preparations,” KCK representatives said. 

Turkish Army’s declaration

The Turkish General Staff made a declaration today on their official webpage about the incident in Lice that killed two people.

The declaration stated that unidentified parties had opened fire on the soldiers during the attack: “People opened fire on the Crime Scene Investigation Team dispatched by Diyarbakır Provincial Gendarmerie Command to the crime scene on Public Prosecution’s orders around 7:10 pm with long barreled weapons,” the announcement read. 

Burials of the deceased 

Ramazan Baran and Baki Akdemir who died in Diyarbakır’s Lice district when the military opened fire, were interred on Sunday.

24-year-old Ramazan Baran’s funeral was picked up this morning from Diyarbakır central Sur district Kurşunlu Mosque and placed on a hearse. The funeral was taken to District Yeniköy Cemetery with a procession of attendees and buried according to custom.

Thousands attended the funeral ceremony including Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chair Ertuğrul Kürkçü, HDP Batman MP Ayla Akat Ata, Diyarbakır Metropolitan Mayor Gültan Kışanak, People’s Democratic Party (CHP) Deputy Chair Sezgin Tanrıkulu, CHP Istanbul MP Melda Onur, and BDP district mayors.

After Baran’s burial, demonstrators barricaded and closed to traffic Göçmenler Avenue in central Bağlar district where shops were closed in reverence. Police intervened against demonstrators with tear gas and pressurized water while the protestors threw Molotov cocktails and stones. 

Akdemir’s family, together with BDP members, picked up the body at the hospital today after the autopsy and held the burial at Lice’s Hedik Village. 

Local business owners left their shutters closed yesterday in Lice and Silvan districts to protest the incident. (PU/BM)