Turkey vows to hunt down 'dark forces'
behind Istanbul hostage-taking
Send a link to a friend
[April 01, 2015]
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey's
justice minister said on Wednesday two hostage takers who seized an
Istanbul prosecutor had "held a gun to the nation" and vowed to hunt
down the "dark forces" responsible, after all three were killed in a
police rescue attempt.
|
Two members of the extreme leftist Revolutionary People's
Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) took prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz,
46, hostage in his office in Istanbul on Tuesday.
Kiraz had been leading an investigation into the death last March of
15-year-old Berkin Elvan, who died nine months after falling into a
coma from a head wound sustained from a police tear gas canister
during anti-government protests in 2013.
The hostage-taking was an act of revenge for Elvan's death, the
DHKP-C said on its website.
"We don't see this as an attack on our deceased prosecutor, but on
the whole justice system. It is a gun directed at our nation,"
Justice Minister Kenan Ipek told mourners at a ceremony attended by
hundreds of lawyers and judges.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Apr/01/images/ads/current/Zion_lda_easter_2015.png) "Our state is powerful enough to track down those behind these
lowlifes ... The fact these assassins are dead shouldn't put those
nefarious and dark forces at ease," he said, as Kiraz's coffin,
draped with the red Turkish flag, stood on display in the courthouse
foyer. Separately, a gunman was detained by armed police on Wednesday after
entering an office of the ruling AK Party in another Istanbul suburb
and hanging a Turkish flag with the emblem of a sword added to it
from a top-floor window.
PROTESTS
DHKP-C sympathizers clashed with police in two Istanbul
neighborhoods overnight, local media reported.
A leftist union website meanwhile said riot police detained 36
students at Istanbul University after posters referring to one of
the dead hostage takers was hung in the law faculty.
[to top of second column] |
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Apr/01/images/ads/current/Jeff_street_lda_031315.png)
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu warned late on Tuesday of the risk of
increased violence ahead of a June general election, urging all
parties to "form a united front against terrorism".
On his Twitter account, Deputy Prime Minister Emrullah Isler accused
the hostage-takers of links to groups which incited violence during
the 2013 unrest in which Elvan was injured.
President Tayyip Erdogan has in the past described the teenager as a
"terrorists' pawn."
The DHKP-C is a Marxist group formed in the late 1970s that has been
behind a series of assassinations and suicide bombings, including
fatal attacks on the U.S. Embassy. The Turkish police have also been
a frequent target.
The United States, European Union and Turkey list the DHKP-C as a
terrorist organization.
(Additional reporting by Daren Butler; Editing by Nick Tattersall
and Hugh Lawson)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Apr/01/images/ads/current/peasleymemorials_lda100213.png) |