İZMİR - İbrahim Kortak, father of Dilan Kortak who was killed by the police during a raid on her home said: "I am on trial for speaking at my daughter's funeral."

 

İbrahim Kortak, father of Dilan Kortak who was killed by the police during a raid on her home on December 3, 2015, in the Sancaktepe Neighborhood of İstanbul will stand trial once again with the accusation of 'propagandizing a terrorist organization' for speaking at her daughter's funeral.

 

DİLAN WAS FULL OF LIFE

 

Stating that they had to migrate to İzmir from Mardin back in the 90's, father Kortak said: "I took my kids and came here. I am a worker. It was hard to get by in İzmir but I was able to send my children to school and raise them. Dilan wanted to go to school. She was a successful student at high school. All of her teachers and friends loved her. She was cheerful, excited and full of life. One day the school manager found a flyer about a petition for PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan in her school bag. They started an investigation against her and expelled my daughter. She didn't want to go school after that. She was so sad. But she did not give up on her struggle."

 

THEY DIDN'T RESPECT THE FUNERAL

 

Underlining that hundreds of people attended her funeral and the police blockaded the cemetery and bullied the people paying their respects, father Kortak said: "I have lost my child. They took my daughter from me at a very early age. They did not even respect the funeral." Underlining that investigations were launched against people who attended the funeral ceremony, father Kortak said: "What kind of a father would not speak at her child's funeral. I always supported my daughter. While those who murdered my child did not even brought to court, they are prosecuting me. We want this persecution on the Kurds to end. We don't want our children to be killed. We don't want tears in mother's eyes. We want our funerals to be respected. This is a shame. Everyone should live freely and equally. This bloodshed must end." 

 

BACKGROUND

 

Dilan Kortak was killed in a raid on his house by the police in Sancaktepe district of Istanbul on 3 December 2015. The criminal complaint filed against the police of the Anti-Terror Branch of the Istanbul Provincial Security Directorate for "deliberate killing" resulted in non-prosecution.

 

The family lawyers of Kortak, Ömer Çakırgöz and Bülent Aşan, filed an appeal to the Istanbul Anatolia 2nd Criminal Judgeship of Peace. The court rejected the objection on the grounds that "the decision subject to objection was found to be in accordance with the procedure and the law according to the scope of the whole investigation file."

 

Then the lawyers brought the file to the Constitutional Court (AYM). The  Stating that the prosecutor's office did not provide an expertise report, did not make an investigation at the scene, did not examine the legal regulations regarding the legal limits of the use of weapons by the security forces as a violation of the right to life, The AYM decided the right to loife of Dilan Kortak was violated on February 25, 2020,  and decided to retrial the defendants.