CHP offers MP candidacy to slain Diyarbakır bar head's wife Türkan Elçi

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The Republican People's Party (CHP) has reportedly offered Türkan Elçi to be deputy candidate from Diyarbakır province in the general elections to be held on May 14. Türkan Elçi is the wife of Tahir Elçi, who was killed in broad daylight in 2015 in the central Sur district of the southeastern province of Diyarbakır while making a public statement.

"Türkan Elçi, the wife of former Diyarbakır Bar Association head Tahir Elçi, has been offered a seat as a Diyarbakır MP by the CHP. Elçi is expected to give her answer tomorrow and say 'yes'," Journalist İsmail Saymaz said on Twitter on March 10.

Accordingly, Türkan Elçi will be nominated as a deputy candidate from the first place in Diyarbakır.

Tahir Elçi, who was head of the Diyarbakır Bar Association, was killed in broad daylight on Nov. 28, 2015, while speaking to the media to call for an end to ongoing conflict between Turkish security forces and the PKK. He was also drawing attention to the damage done to Sur district’s historic sites, including the area surrounding the famous Four-Legged Minaret, during army operations.

Elçi’s press conference was interrupted when two alleged members of the PKK ran through the scene, moments after they had shot and killed two police officers nearby.

Police who had been at the press conference opened fire as the pair ran past, and several shots were fired. Elçi, who was also a vocal human rights activist, received a bullet to the back of his head and lost his life at the scene of the incident.