Tanrıkulu: Parliamentary Investigation Commission for Tahir Elçi is Indispensable

Click to read the article in Turkish

Republican People's Party (CHP) İstanbul MP Sezgin Tanrıkulu has submitted a petition to the Speaker's Office of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) with the demand that a Parliamentary Investigation Commission be established to conduct a parliamentary investigation into the murder of Diyarbakır Bar Association Chair Tahir Elçi in Diyarbakır in 2015.

CLICK - 3 Years Without Tahir Elçi...

In his petition submitted to the Speaker's Office, Tanrıkulu has underlined "the necessity to investigate the killing of Tahir Elçi in every aspect and in a comprehensive manner" and added:

"It is indispensable to establish a Parliamentary Investigation Commission so as to investigate the process leading up to and following the death of Elçi in a comprehensive manner and reveal the responsible parties."

"He was targeted due to his statements"

Reminding that Tahir Elçi was targeted, taken into custody and received death threats due to a statement that the made in a television program, Tanrıkulu has emphasized that this process of detentions and threats "prepared the ground for the attack launched against Elçi."

Tanrıkulu has also added, "It is highly meaningful that although Tahir Elçi stated that he was receiving death threats, he was not provided with a close protection officer by the authorities."

"Statement was allowed despite intelligence"

Tahir Elçi, who was the Chair of Diyarbakır Bar Association, was murdered in front of the Four-Legged Minaret in Sur in Turkey's southeastern province of Diyarbakır on November 28, 2015 during a statement for the press.

In his petition, Tanrıkulu has reminded that "there was intelligence regarding a protest to be staged at 10.30 a.m. on the street where the statement would be made" and added, "The reason why Elçi was allowed to make the statement despite this intelligence definitely requires further explanation."

"No crime scene investigation was conducted"

Emphasizing that "the prosecutor went to the scene of incident 4-5 hours after the incident and returned without making any investigation", Tanrıkulu has also underlined that the absence of a crime scene investigation and failure to collect evidence at the scene of incident "have caused the killing of Tahir Elçi to remain as an unidentified murder."

Tanrıkulu has concluded his petition by stating, "It is indispensable to establish a Parliamentary Investigation Commission with the aim of investigating the process leading up to and following the death of Tahir Elçi in a comprehensive manner and revealing the responsible parties." (HA/SD)