Police break arm of Gezi Park victim’s mother while detaining her

Turkish police broke the arm of Gülsüm Elvan, the mother of Berkin Elvan, who was killed during the Gezi Park protests in 2013, while detaining her during a protest on Friday in İstanbul’s Kadıköy district in support of imprisoned educators Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça, who have been on a hunger strike for over 150 days.

According to the Evrensel daily, Berkin Elvan’s mother Gülsüm Elvan and sister Özge Elvan was among 16 people who were detained after a violent police intervention on Friday.

Gülsüm Elvan’s arm was broken by a police officer when she was handcuffed with her hands behind her back. She was taken to a hospital for treatment.

All sixteen people including Elvan’s mother and sister were released after they were questioned at a police station on Friday night, Evrensel said.

Berkin Elvan, a 15-year-old Turkish teenager, died in 2014 after being in a coma for 269 days induced when he was hit in the head by a tear gas canister fired by police during the Gezi Park protests in İstanbul in the summer of 2013.

Gülmen and Özakça were on a hunger strike to protest their dismissals when they were arrested on terror charges on May 23 in Ankara in the wake of a botched coup attempt on July 15, 2016. Gülmen was fired from Konya Selçuk University and Özakça was a teacher at a primary school in Turkey’s eastern province of Mardin before they were purged over ties to a “terrorist” organization.