Kurdish American Education Society Los Angeles | iKurd.net
Kurdish American Education Society Los Angeles Condemns the Assassination of Mr. Tahir Elci, the President of the Kurdish Bar Association in Turkey
Press Release
November 29, 2015
We the member of the Kurdish American Education Society Los Angles are saddened and shocked by news of the assassination of the prominent Kurdish lawyer, Mr. Tahir Elci in Turkey. We vehemently denounce this assassination and express our condolences to his family and the entire Kurdish nation through out the world. His murder adds to the litany of violence in Kurdish regions of Turkey. Mr. Elci the president of the Kurdish Bar Association in Diyarbakir was a leading human rights activist who indefatigably defended the cause of peace, victims of violence, minority human rights, and democracy. As an altruistic and well- known lawyer with unwavering moral obligation he believed in and practiced the spirit of law and justice, defying despotism and injustice in all forms. The U.S emabassy in Turkey in condemning the assassination called Mr. Elci “ a courageous defender of human rights”. The British ambassador to Turkey, Richard Moore in a tweet announced, “I was shocked and depressed by the death of my friend…a good and brave man cut down. A human rights defender over many decades.”
Mr. Elci was murdured during a press conference attended by 20 lawyers and members of the media. He had reportedly just finished reading his statement about the need to end senseless violence when he was shot execution style in the back of his neck. The People’s Democratic Party (HDP) has called the killing a “planned assassination”. Mr. Elci, as an outspoken critic of the belligerent discourse and policies of AKP, the Turkish Ruling Party, had dedicated his life to the defense of human rights; consequently, he had repeatedly been targeted and detained for his human rights and civic activities and democratic aspirations; he had last been interrogated in October by the Turkish security forces for his perspectives on the peace process. He was awaiting trial at the time he was murdured. He was the leading lawyer for many in the killings of 35 Kurdish civilians in the Turkish airstrike in Roboski (Turkish Uluder) in December 2011.
The murder of Mr. Elci, this advocate of human rights should cause international outrage and condemnation against those who have committed such a heinous crime. We call on the Turkish Bar Association, all human rights organizations, the Turkish independent journalists and intellectuals, the UN Human Rights Council, the U.S State Department, the California Bar Association to organize and launch an independent international inquiry into this brutal assassination and bring the perpetrators to justice in a country that has become too dangerous for human rights activists, lawyers, and critics of the government.
Dr. Amir Sharifi
President of the Kurdish American Education Society Los Angeles
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