Mihraç, Efe, Berfin… 20 children died in armored vehicle crashes in 10 years

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After a police officer caused the death of 7-year-old Mihraç Miroğlu with an armored vehicle in Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeastern province of Şırnak, the deadly armored vehicle crashes in the country have once again come to the public agenda as a burning issue.

According to a report released by the Diyarbakır Branch of the Human Rights Association (İHD), at least 17 children aged between 4 and 17 lost their lives after being run over by armored vehicles in 2008-2019. Since 2019, three more children have died for the same reason.

The İHD report shows that at least 63 armored vehicle crashes happened in Turkey in 10 years. 16 children lost their lives while 14 children were wounded in these 63 incidents.

The deadly crashes were as follows:

Diyarbakır: 3
Batman: 1
Siirt: 1
Şırnak: 8
Van: 1
Hakkari: 1
Mardin: 1
Antep: 1
Erzurum:1
Bitlis:1
İstanbul: 1

Maziye Aslan - Hakkari, April 29, 2009, 11 years old
Diren Basan - Şırnak, June 3, 2010, 10 years old
Yusuf Yılan - Erzurum, June 13, 9 years old
Sinan Saltıkalp - Şırnak/Cizre, April 23, 2013, 17 years old
Cuma Özkaplan - Antep, April 15, 2016, 17 years old
Bünyamin Bayram - Şırnak/Cizre, June 7, 2016, 6 years old
Taha Kılıç - Van, July 24, 2016, 4 years old
Hakan Sarak- Şırnak/Cizre, October 24, 2016, 5 years old
Berfin Dilek - Mardin, February 9, 2017, 7 years old.
Muhammed-Furkan Yıldırım brothers - Şırnak/Silopi, May 4, 2017, 7 and 6 years old
Zilan Yamankılıç - Diyarbakır, June 19, 2017, 10 years old
Felek Batur - Siirt, October 21, 2017, 7 years old
Burak İlhan - Batman, November 6, 2017, 5 years old
Umut Özalp - Şırnak, December 17, 2017, 4 years old
Ferhat Dalkılıç - Diyarbakır, December 29, 2017, 5 years old
Raşit Oso - İstanbul/Şişli, August 1, 2017, 9 years old
Efe Tektekin - Diyarbakır, September 11, 2019, 6 years old
Eyüp Kırtay - Bitlis, August 25, 2021, 10 years old
Mihraç Miroğlu - Şırnak, September 3, 2021, 7 years old.

CLICK - Who will protect Kurdish children from armored vehicles?

(AÖ/SD)