Turkey protests: two more deaths feed growing discontent

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/13/turkey-protest-two-deaths-growing-discontent

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Two deaths in two days have highlighted the deepening polarisation of Turkish politics, as tension soared at the funerals of a young man and a teenage boy.

Following the burial of Berkin Elvan – a teenager who died after being hit in the head by a teargas canister during last summer's protests – two more deaths have set the mood in Turkey further on edge.

The government has been under pressure since widespread demonstrations targeting the increasingly authoritarian rule of prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan rocked the country last June. A corruption scandal involving senior government politicians and the prime minister and his family has fed a growing undercurrent of discontent. After Thursday's funeral, violent clashes broke out in several cities, with riot police deploying water cannon and teargas against mourners in Istanbul.

In the eastern province of Tunceli a police officer suffered a heart attack during protests. In Istanbul the death of Burakcan Karamanoglu, 22, followed clashes between police and protesters on Wednesday night. He was allegedly killed by a bullet to the head in his neighbourhood of Okmeydani, a few metres from the house of Elvan's family.

His death was announced on live TV by Aziz Babuscu, the ruling AK party's Istanbul provincial head. "There were two groups attacking the police and one youth suffered a head injury … and lost his life," he told CNN Turk. He said at the time of Karamanoglu's death no police were present.

The dead man's father, Halil Karamanoglu, said a bullet was fired from the direction of protesters involved in the clashes following the funeral of the teenage boy. "People were walking up from these protests. [My son and his friends] were standing outside, watching them. They came towards him and his friends. Everything happened in only five, 10 minutes. A bullet hit him out of nowhere. From the direction of the protesters."

He urged everyone to unite, and underlined that too many parents had suffered already.

Other witness reports cited in Turkish media have alleged that an angry verbal exchange between "two opposing groups" preceded the shooting and that pro-government football fans were involved in the fight on Karamanoglu's side. The police have not confirmed any of these reports. The Guardian was unable to independently verify any of these statements.

At the funeral – the second burial in two days – hundreds of mourners, many of whom came from the neighbourhood of Karamanoglu's family, carried red carnations and Turkish flags. Angry protesters brandished photos of the killed youth.

Prior to a series of elections starting this month the rift between the government and the local opposition has widened. Mourners responded with hostility to the foreign press.

"We don't want to tell you what happened last night," one woman said. "You, the foreign press, you have done enough damage, we are sick of you."

Other protesters shouted slogans targeting the main opposition Republican People's party (CHP): "Killer CHP," some chanted, and others: "Killer Kilicdaroglu," referring to the party's leader.