The two members of the terrorist group Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP/C) took prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz hostage on Tuesday as an act of revenge over a teenager's death during anti-government protests in 2013.
Kiraz, who was also killed in the rescue attempt, was leading an investigation into the death last March of 15-year-old Berkin Elvan, who died after nine months in a coma from a head wound sustained from a police gas canister.
Police used tear gas to break up protests in Okmeydanı, Elvan's neighborhood in central İstanbul, the Radikal newspaper said on its website.
In the working-class Ä°stanbul district of Gazi, scene of frequent clashes and where the group has sympathizers, police used tear gas and water cannon to stop protesters from marching on a police station, it said.
Elvan died during protests that began as an effort to save a park from development before swelling into the biggest anti-government movement in a generation. President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan has described Elvan as a "terrorists' pawn."
The DHKP/C, designated by Turkey, the US and the European Union as a terrorist organization, is a Marxist group formed in the late 1970s that has been behind a series of assassinations and suicide bombings, including fatal attacks on the US Embassy. The Turkish police have been a frequent target too.
A website close to the group published a picture of the prosecutor with a gun to his head on Tuesday. Authorities tried to negotiate for Kiraz's release, but he was shot in the head and body and died of his wounds.
Follow us on Telegram
t.me/apanewsaz
Follow us on Instagram
Follow us on TikTok
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on X
