Turkish sergeant hits and kills 5-year-old while driving, points gun toward reacting locals in southeast

A Turkish specialized sergeant has hit and killed a 5-year-old child while driving his civilian car in the southeastern Hakkari province. The sergeant faced the reaction of locals to which he responded by pointing his gun towards them.

Thursday June 08 2023 10:58 am

Evrim Deniz / Gazete Duvar

A specialized sergeant on June 7 hit and killed a 5-year-old child with his civilian car in the southeastern province of Hakkari’s Yüksekova district.

The Yüksekova Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation into the incident, leading to the detention of the specialized sergeant.

The family’s lawyer Ömer Faruk Aşkan told Gazete Duvar that the mother and her two children were standing on the traffic island and waiting to cross the road when the specialized sergeant hit the 5-year-old Erdem Aşkan.

After the incident, locals gathered at the scene and started verbally insulting the specialized sergeant to which he responded by pointing his gun towards them. “Shopkeepers and citizens around have come to the scene of the incident (based on eyewitnesses’ statements). They have reacted against the person who hit the child and kicked his car. And the driver pointed his gun towards citizens, threatened them and then fled the scene. Later we found out that he was detained,” the lawyer said.

Green Left Party Hakkari lawmakers Öznur Bartın and Vezir Parlak reacted against the incident on their social media accounts, with Bartın saying impunity is leading to the death of several children in southeastern Turkey.

“According to the report released by Diyarbakır Bar Association Children Rights Center in 2022, 49 people, including 22 children, have lost their lives within the last 10 years as a result of being hit by armored vehicle,” Parlak said, adding that members of security forces have not received jail terms in these incidents.

(English version by Didem Atakan)

Topics Turkey Hakkari Turkish sergeant Yüksekova