(Didim) The funeral of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a Turkish-American activist killed on September 6 in the West Bank, is being held in Turkey on Saturday with the aim of making her a symbol of her commitment to the Palestinian cause.
At the end of the morning, the large crowd awaited the arrival of the coffin in front of the small mosque in Didim, hung with Turkish flags and protected by a large security service, chanting slogans hostile to Israel and the United States: “the Palestinian people are not alone.”
As soon as her death was announced, Ankara, which opened an investigation, strongly denounced this “arbitrary assassination” attributed to the Israeli army: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan assured that his country would do everything “so that the death of our daughter, Aysenur Ezgi, does not go unpunished.”
The 26-year-old woman, who arrived in the United States with her family at the age of 10 months, is to be buried early this afternoon in the cemetery of Didim (South-West), on the Aegean coast, where her relatives live and where her parents and her partner who live in the United States arrived.
PHOTO DILARA SENKAYA, REUTERS
International Solidarity Movement (ISM) activist Aysenur Eygi was killed while taking part in a protest in the northern occupied West Bank, near Nablus.
Representatives of the main parties, the ruling AKP and the opposition, made the trip, as well as activists from Turkey’s main Islamic NGO, the IHH.
The burial is scheduled to follow midday prayers starting at 1:15 p.m. local time (6:15 a.m. Eastern Time).
The young woman’s body arrived in Turkey on Friday and was taken to Izmir (West), the country’s third city on the western coast, where a new autopsy confirmed her death by “firearm”, reported public television TRT.
TRT noted that these conclusions “correspond” to those of the three Palestinian doctors who ruled out the hypothesis of indirect fire.
These results will be attached to the report of the investigation opened by the Ankara prosecutor, Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunç said.
The young activist was greeted upon her arrival in Istanbul by the Turkish army’s guard of honour reserved for martyrs and by officials.
“A very special person”
International Solidarity Movement (ISM) activist Aysenur Eygi was killed while taking part in a protest in the northern occupied West Bank, near Nablus.
The Israeli army considered it “very likely” that shots from its ranks killed the young woman “indirectly and unintentionally”.
“Aysenur received an excellent education in the United States, she was married, financially comfortable, she left everything behind to defend her ideals,” recalled her tearful father, Mehmet Suat Eygi, on Friday, in front of the family home in Didim where the young graduate of the University of Washington regularly stayed on vacation.
PHOTO DILARA SENKAYA, REUTERS
As soon as the death of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was announced, Ankara, which opened an investigation, strongly denounced this “arbitrary assassination” attributed to the Israeli army.
Mr. Eygi welcomed the opening of an investigation by the Turkish authorities and called on the United States, his daughter’s other country, to do the same: “I expect the same from the American government, because Aysenur was only 10 months old when she arrived in the United States,” he said.
“The only thing I ask of the State is to demand justice for my daughter. That [son] “Blood must be avenged. Those responsible must be punished, because she was deliberately targeted,” her mother, Rabia Birden, was quoted as saying by Anadolu Agency.
Turkey is considering issuing international arrest warrants, depending on the results of its investigation.
The minister also called on the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial and arbitrary executions to establish an independent commission of inquiry and to prepare a report on Mr.me Eygi with the intention of joining him in the ongoing “genocide” proceedings against Israel before the International Court of Justice and in the investigation also underway before the International Criminal Court.