Security director tells family to ‘not exaggerate’ death in armored vehicle crash
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The Cizre Security Director reportedly told the family "to not exaggerate the incident" after 23-year-old Abdulgaffar Dayan lost his life after he had been hit by a Ranger armored vehicle in Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeastern province of Şırnak on January 24, 2022.
Hit by the armored vehicle in Cizre, university prep school student Dayan lost his life at the hospital two days later.
The Cizre Municipality made a statement on its official Twitter account 4 days after the incident and stated that the armored vehicle that hit Dayan belongs to the police officers guarding the trustee.
CLICK - Man dies after being hit by armored vehicle in Şırnak
Abdulgaffar Dayan's paternal uncle Mehmet Sait Dayan has spoken to Zeynep Durgut from Mezopotamya Agency (MA).
'Vehicle hit him very fast'
Noting that the vehicle was going very fast, uncle Dayan has said, "His heart had already stopped at the hospital. He was brought back thanks to the medical intervention afterwards. But doctors said that his heart was beating very slowly. Then, they took him into surgical operation. The operation did not go well, either. Because he suffered from internal bleeding."
Speaking about his condition, uncle Dayan added, "Doctors said that his bleeding did not stop. They took him to the intensive care unit after the operation. They said that referring him to another city would be too risky as he was in a severe condition. He was living connected to the device. He spent two days in the intensive care unit and lost his life afterwards."
CLICK - Mihraç, Efe, Berfin... 20 children died in armored vehicle crashes in 10 years
'You are creating a diversion'
According to uncle Mehmet Sait Dayan, the Cizre Security Director came to the hospital to visit Dayan and said, "Don't exaggerate the incident":
"The Security Director came to the hospital for a visit. We told him, 'Your armored vehicles are going so fast on the streets where there are children and old people. Don't let them go so fast on the street.' He told us, 'It was not going fast. It was as fast as the vehicle in front of it.'
"We reiterated that the vehicle was going fast. The Security Director told us, 'The same incident happened on Nusaybin Street as well the other day. A citizen hit by a motorcycle died but no one said anything about it. You are creating a diversion because this is the security's vehicle.'
'He was dragged on the ground'
"As far as we have been informed, my nephew was dragged on the ground for 28 meters. A person would die if s/he was dragged on the ground for 28 meters. Think about it: If a person falls from the 10th floor of a building, s/he dies. The same thing happened there. He stayed on the ground for 40 minutes; they waited for an ambulance. The ambulance could arrive 40 minutes later. It was raining; everywhere was in water and mud.
"He waited there in that water. Such accidents happen frequently in our region. This needs to be prevented; measures have to be taken as soon as possible. As long as an incident does not occur on the street or in the bazaar, armored vehicles should not be there. They use armored vehicles even when they go to buy cigarettes. This should not happen."
16 deaths in the last 3.5 years
According to the data collected by the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV-HRFT), 16 people, including nine children and one person with disabilities, lost their lives after being hit by the vehicles of security forces and public institutions between January 1, 2018 and September 10, 2021. 41 people, 13 of whom were children, were also wounded in the same period.
According to another report prepared by the Diyarbakır Branch of the Human Rights Association (İHD), at least 20 children aged 4-17 lost their lives in armored vehicle crashes in Turkey between 2008 and 2020. The İHD report showed that at least 63 armored vehicle crashes were reported in the press in these 10 years. (RT/SD)