HDP brings Çetin Kaya's 'killing' by the police to Parliamentary agenda

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Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) İstanbul MP Oya Ersoy has submitted a Parliamentary question about the killing of Çetin Kaya.

Oya Ersoy has recalled that "on the night of November 30 at around 10 pm, a citizen named Çetin Kaya was killed by the police for allegedly not having abided by the stop warning of the police in Fahrettin Kerim Gökay Street in Kadıköy's Göztepe in İstanbul."

CLICK - Man killed by police after allegedly disobeying 'stop' warning

The MP has said that after Çetin Kaya was handcuffed behind his back, he was shot in the back of his head at close range and lost his life.

According to Oya Ersoy, as in the case of several files where police officers are the perpetrators, the city surveillance cameras in the vicinity of the scene of the incident "were not recording." The MP has vowed to closely follow up the issue so that it will not be covered up.

She said, "The death of the citizen named Çetin Kaya happened as follows: After he got out of the vehicle, he was forced to lie on the ground, handcuffed behind his back and shot to death in the back of his head by the police. Police state that 'Kaya did not obey the stop warning, continued resisting after getting out of the vehicle and was shot in the ensuing commotion'."

Before addressing her questions to Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gül and Vice President Fuat Oktay, Ersoy has noted, "It is unacceptable that police violence has increased; not the police who used violence, but the citizens subjected to violence are put on trial; an unarmed citizen made to get out of his vehicle is rear-handcuffed and then shot at close range."

Questions to minister, vice president

Ersoy has asked Justice Minister Gül and Vice President Oktay the following questions about the incident:

1. Why was the citizen named Çetin Kaya killed by being shot at close range after he was detained unarmed and with rear-handcuffs?

2. Is the duty of police officers, the law enforcement officers, to commit extrajudicial killings?

3. Have the city surveillance cameras during the moment of the incident examined? Has any inquiry been launched upon the news that the footage has been deleted? Have the harddisks been seized and submitted to an impartial institution outside the security for examination?

4. If there is no city surveillance camera footage, has an administrative action been taken against the officers who kept the cameras out of order?

5. Is it a coincidence that there is no city surveillance camera footage or no police station security camera footage in almost any of the files in which police officers are the perpetrators?

Impunity encourages them

According to the Progressive Lawyers' Association (ÇHD), the police shot some 403 people to death in Turkey for disobeying "stop" warnings between the years 2007 and 2020. In 2020 alone, 15 people, including three children, were killed and 13 were wounded by security forces, according to the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV-HRFT) reports.

Rights advocates raise concerns about impunity, which they say encourages police officers to open fire on people. (EMK/SD)