Zehra Doğan Paints the Picture of Ceylan Önkol on the Streets of London
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On September 28, which marked the 10th anniversary of 14-year-old Ceylan Önkol's death in an explosion, painter-journalist Zehra Doğan painted the picture of Önkol on the streets of London.
Ceylan Önkol lost her life in an explosion while she was pasturing sheep in the hamlet of Hambaz (Xambaz) in Şenlik (Sıpêni) village in the district of Lice in Turkey's southeastern province of Diyarbakır. It was September 29, 2009 and Önkol was 14 years old.
Her deceased body was left there for six hours and the prosecutor went to the scene of incident three days later for reasons of 'life safety'.
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Living in London, Kurdish journalist-painter Zehra Doğan did not forget Önkol. On the 10th anniversary of her death, she painted her picture on the walls of London. Doğan has also shared the video that was captured while she was painting the picture on Twitter. "To all children massacred with mortar shells", Doğan has said in her message.
Katledilişinin 10. yılında Ceylan Önkol Londra sokaklarındahttps://t.co/KPDLHbVoYV
— Zehra Doğan (@zehradoganjinha) October 5, 2019
What happened?Ceylan Önkol lost her life in an explosion while she was pasturing sheep in Hambaz (Xambaz) hamlet of Şenlik village in Turkey's southeastern Lice district in Diyarbakır province on September 28, 2009. Her body was left at the scene for six hours, the prosecutor went to crime scene for investigation only three days later due to "life safety". Democratic Society Party (DTP) Diyarbakır MP Gültan Kışanak demanded answers from then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan regarding the death of Ceylan Önkol. The Human Rights Association (İHD) voiced their concerns that Önkol might have been killed by being targeted. On October 19, 2009 Republican People's Party (CHP) Istanbul MP Çetin Soysal applied to the Head of the Parliamentary Human Rights Commission to clarify Önkol's death. In August 2010, Forensic Medicine expert Prof. Biçer prepared the first independent report on the death Önkol upon the request of the Önkol family lawyers. According to the report prepared by Prof. Ümit Biçer, Önkol did not set off a bomb on the field by hitting it with a knife but to the contrary died in a position of defence. Önkol's family applied to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), which announced its verdict on January 17, 2017 and ruled that there was no violation in terms of effective investigation and the right to live. On April 30, 2014, the Lice Chief Public Prosecutor's Office concluded that the evidence and reports in the case file were not sufficient to identify the perpetrators and issued a "permanent search warrant." Lawyers of the family are concerned that the cse might be dropped due to a violation of statute of limitations. |
(AS/SD)