100reasons

53. Nazlı Akyürek

Biography
Nazlı Akyürek was among those who responded to the call of the Federation of Socialist Youth Clubs (SGDF) and went to Suruç. Nazlı Akyürek was a graduate of Kocaeli University Law School at the age of 22.

Date
20.07.2015

Place
Suruç, South-Eastern Turkey

Description
The attack occurred when, at the call of the Federation of Socialist Youth Associations (SGDF), 300 young people gathered at the Amara Cultural Centre to hold a press conference before their departure for Kobanê. The planned trip to northern Syria was intended to be an act of solidarity. The young people wanted to take children’s toys and humanitarian aid supplies to the city destroyed by the ISIS.
Nazlı Akyürek was one of the 33 young people killed in the IS bombing in Suruç ,South-Eastern Turkey.

Current legal situation
In the indictment, which was prepared by the General Prosecutor’s Office of Urfa 18 months after the massacre, three defendants, only one of whom was in prison, were sentenced to 104 years in prison. The only defendant, Yakup Şahin, who had not fled did not attend the hearing. The other defendants, Deniz Büyükçelebi and İlhami Ballı, were in Syria according to the prosecution. The trial for the Suruç massacre began 21 months after the incident on 4 May 2017 before the 5th Heavy Penal Court on the campus of the Urfa Penitentiary Authorities in Hilvan. When officials were put on trial for the massacre on January 9, 2017, a fine of 7,500 TL was imposed on Mehmet Yapalıal, the then district police president, for “negligence and misconduct”. In the second case, in which officials were brought to justice, there were two policemen as defendants. The police officers were brought before the Suruç Criminal Court of First Instance for “misconduct”.

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