Berkin Elvan (5 January 1999 â 11 March 2014) was a 15-year-old boy who was hit on the head by a tear-gas canister fired by a police officer in Istanbul during the June 2013 anti-government protests in Turkey. He died on March 11, 2014. Lawyers representing the family said Elvan's condition worsened over the last week of his life, with his weight dropping from 45 kg to 16 kg. Widespread demonstrations erupted following Berkin's death.
His father was from Tokat, while his mother was from Tunceli.
On 16 June 2013, Berkin Elvan was in an area where the Gezi Park protests unfolded near his home in Okmeydanñ, Istanbul. That day his mother wanted to go out and buy bread, but Berkin said that the streets were too dangerous and because he was younger, he could run faster in case of an emergency. He was later hit on the head by a tear gas canister fired by the police officer Fatih Dalgalñ. Elvan fell into a coma and died 269 days later on 11 March 2014. His funeral was held in Istanbul on March 12 and attended by thousands of people. He was buried at the Feriköy Cemetery, Istanbul.
On 12 March 2014, four police officers testified for the ongoing investigation concerning the case of Berkin Elvan's injury during the Gezi protests. Overall, 18 police officers testified as suspects in the investigation, including these four. The prosecution evaluated the footage of the surveillance cameras for three years until they were able to identify and prosecute Dalgalñ. He was prosecuted for manslaughter on 6 April 2017, but the court decided not to issue an arrest warrant for Dalgalñ. On 3 February 2020, the gendarmery issued a report mentioning that Elvan was partly to blame for his own death, since he was in an area of protests. After two more hearings in 2021, Dalgalñ was sentenced to 16 years and 8 months in prison, but the court abstained from ordering an arrest for Dalgalñ.
Following Elvan's death, a funeral ceremony was held at a cemevi in the Okmeydanñ district of à Âià Âli, attended by tens of thousands of people. His body was brought to the Feriköy Cemetery after a five-hour walk. When brought to the cemetery, Elvan's body was taken from the hearse and carried on shoulders before being buried.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÃÂan claimed that Elvan was a "member of a terrorist organization"; ErdoganâÂÂs supporters said Elvan behaved violently and photos of a hooded youth online were circulated online. Berkin was known to disagree with the governments actions.
In March 2014, Maoist rebels attacked a police station in Tunceli in revenge for Elvan's killing.
Following Elvan's death, protests erupted throughout Turkey in Adana, Adñyaman, Antalya, Ankara, Ardahan, Bursa, Bolu, ÃÂorum Düzce, Edirne, Gaziantep, Istanbul, ðzmir, Konya, Hatay, Malatya, Sivas, à Âanlñurfa, à Âñrnak, Kayseri, Tunceli, Tokat, Zonguldak and worldwide in cities such as Nuremberg, London, Paris, Vienna, Helsinki, Strasbourg, Stockholm, New York City, Boston, Washington D.C., Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bielefeld, Berlin, Brussels, The Hague, Dresden, Duisburg, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Cologne, Lausanne, Lisbon, Rotterdam, Stuttgart, Warsaw, Seattle, and Toronto.
During the official event for the National Sovereignty and Children's Day held in Eyüpsultan, Istanbul on 23 April 2014, three children who held a banner and chanted slogans reading "Berkin Elvan is Immortal" and were taken into custody by police officers while Istanbul Governor Hüseyin Avni Mutlu was on stage to give awards to students. It was learned that after the 3 children were detained, another child in the area was detained. On the same date, during the April 23 celebrations in Samsun, a person who entered the ceremony area with a banner in his hand was removed from the ceremony area by security forces and detained.
On January 6, 2015, it was announced on a website close to the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front that the suicide attack in front of the Istanbul Police Department Tourism Branch Office in the Sultanahmet district of Istanbul's Fatih district was carried out by Elif Sultan Kalsen, a member of the organization. The reason for the attack in the statement was presented as "the punishment of Berkin Elvan's murderers by our self-sacrificing warrior and holding the fascist state that protects the AKP's corrupt and thieving ministers accountable." Kalsen's family, who was brought to the Forensic Medicine Institute to identify the dead attacker, said that the body did not belong to Kalsen, while the police made a statement that the attacker was not Kalsen. After a while, the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front made a statement that the attack was not carried out by them and that the previous statement was made as a result of a mistake.
On 31 March 2015, two members of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front (DHKP-C) entered the Istanbul Justice Palace and took the public prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz, who was investigating the Berkin Elvan case, hostage. The perpetrators threatened to kill the prosecutor and gave the police a list of demands. The incident lasted about nine hours, turning into a clash between the members and Turkish security forces. As a result, the prosecutor and the perpetrators were killed.