TURKISH DELIGHT. Blood on the street

March 31 in Istanbul was like something out of Die Hard : gunmen, hostages, a standoff and eventually: a tragic death. Armed gunmen from the left wing Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party Front (DHKP-C) took an Istanbul prosecutor, Mehmet Selim Kiraz, hostage.

Kiraz was investigating the death of Berkin Elvan, a 15-year-old who was hit by a police tear gas canister during the nationwide Gezi protests in 2013. By the end of the day, both the prosecutor and his captors were dead in a bloody, botched shootout, after security forces stormed the office.

Even two years after Gezi, the simmering anger over Berkin’s death remains. The teen was going on an innocent errand to buy bread in his neighbourhood, when he was hit in June 2013. He remained in a coma for 269 days, finally dying in March 2014. Protests over Berkin’s death swept Turkey after the attack, and again after his funeral.

Bread is a powerful symbol of prosperity and happiness in Turkey. The image of the cherubic, smiling Berkin became a symbol of police brutality too, even as his killers remained unpunished. On social media, always a powerful tool in Turkey, the moving hashtag “Uyan cocuk” or “Wake up, child!” trended. People posted pictures of themselves carrying the long baguette shaped loaf found on Berkin’s body, and some shops refused to sell bread.

To make matters worse, combative President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called him a “terrorist pawn”. Erdogan’s comments enraged the many young protestors smarting after the Gezi crackdown.

Pawn or not, Berkin’s death has given new life to the Marxist Leninist DKHP-C. The group has been active since the 1970s. Most recently, a female suicide bomber killed a policeman in the tourist hub of Sultanhamet, just in front of the Blue Mosque.

The DHKP-C’s demands reportedly included a live confession from the police officers believed to have killed Berkin, a “people’s court” to prosecute the officers, and the acquittal of demonstrators who had protested against the teenager’s death. Berkin’s parents had pleaded unsuccessfully with the captors to release their hostage.

The latest attack is also going to give the government an excuse to get even more brutal, and take away already fragile civil rights. The Turkish parliament recently approved a controversial new security bill, vastly expanding police powers to detain demonstrators, conduct warrantless searches and use deadly force during violent protests.

The bill came after two years of periodic street protests in Turkey and the arrest of many journalists. So severe is the bill that demonstrators can be punished for merely covering their faces with a headscarf during tear gas attacks. “No one will be allowed to drag Turkey into an environment of chaos,” Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu threatened.

After furious protests from the opposition, the government agreed to reconsider the bill, but after this latest incident, Erdogan will have an excuse to get tough, especially as elections are in June. Already, the government is threatening tougher action and talking grimly of “divisive forces.”

At Kiraz’s funeral, attended by thousands, but from which the media were banned, Davutoglu issued a second warning. “There will be not even a minute of tolerance for those in streets without permission,” he said. But will Turkey’s young and restless be deterred? Unlikely.

The writer is a journalist based in Istanbul and Bengaluru

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