Police break up anniversary rallies of teenager’s death

DPA/Reuters/AFPIstanbulTurkish police fired tear gas and used water cannon yesterday to break up rallies marking the first anniversary of the death of Berkin Elvan, the youngest person to die in violence during 2013 anti-government protests.Several people were arrested after they sprayed red paint on steps near Taksim Square, the focal point of the unrest that gripped the country for several weeks in the summer of 2013, the Dogan News Agency reported.A ceremony was held in Istanbul’s Okmeydani neighbourhood, where Berkin was hit in the head by a tear gas canister in June 2013.He spent nine months in a coma before dying in hospital nine months later at the age of 15.The boy’s family said he was not involved in the unrest and was out buying bread.A Turkish police officer went on trial in December 2014 after he went on Facebook to praise the killing of Elvan, saying: “I kiss the hands of the riot policeman who fired on your head.”Mainly leftist protesters chanting “Berkin Elvan is immortal” clashed with police in Istanbul and Ankara.President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, prime minister at the time of the 2013 protests, said that Elvan was linked to “terrorist” groups.The 2013 protests posed one the biggest challenges to Erdogan, in office since 2003, but his opponents failed to make inroads at the ballot box.The next election is slated for June, when Erdogan hopes his AK Party will gain enough seats in parliament to create a strong executive presidency.In Elvan’s neighbourhood of Okmeydani, almost 1,000 protesters marched towards the cemetery where Elvan was buried, then attempted to rush armoured police vehicles that fired water cannon.Police chased protesters into side streets using tear gas and rubber bullets, witnesses said.At Gezi Park in central Istanbul – the centre of the 2013 protests – police detained eight high-school students who splattered the area in red paint meant to resemble blood and unfurled a banner saying “Berkin is here”.In the capital, Ankara, police detained 11 people who had blocked traffic in the working-class district of Tuzlucayir, Hurriyet newspaper reported on its website.Tuzlucayir is largely inhabited by members of the Alevi faith, as was ElvanMeanwhile, vandals attacked a small statue of Elvan that had been unveiled only last week in the Guzelbahce district of the western city of Izmir.The damage left a crack across the head of the statue, in a possible reference to Elvan’s own injury, Turkish media reports said.Protests took place in some 20 cities in Turkey.