Ten years after her daughter was shot and killed during a police raid on their family home, a grieving mother said her family still faces unfair treatment, the Duvar news website reported.
Twenty-four-year-old Dilek Doğan was fatally shot on October 18, 2015 during a raid on her home by 13 police officers. The officers said they were looking for a suspect who was allegedly a member of the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) and potentially a suicide bomber.
An ambulance arrived 45 minutes after the shooting and took the young woman to a hospital, where she died a week later.
Dilek Doğan’s brother, Emrah Doğan, was arrested for alleged links to a terrorist organization on January 15, 2019. He was handed down a 20-year sentence based on anonymous witness statements.
In an open letter published on the Bianet news website, Emrah Doğan said he was “punished” for seeking justice for his sister and speaking out about the events of the night she was killed.
The family’s ordeals were not over since in 2023 another of Dilek’s brothers, Mazlum Doğan, died by suicide in the United Kingdom, where he had been living as an asylum seeker since 2022. He felt compelled to flee Turkey due to not feeling safe.
Mother Aysel Doğan is now calling on Turkish authorities to review Emrah Doğan’s case and reverse his prison sentence. She said her son had been in prison for six years without justification. She accused the authorities of punishing him simply for seeking justice for his sister’s death.
Aysel Doğan appealed for her son Emrah’s release, saying she could not accept the unfair treatment he has faced. The grieving mother added that the years after her daughter’s death had been marked by pain, loss and sorrow.
“It hurts that my son was handed down a longer prison sentence than the police officer who shot my daughter,” she said.
The police officer who fatally shot Dilek Doğan had claimed through his lawyer that the gun had discharged accidentally in a scuffle after the family tried to snatch it away.
The Istanbul 12th High Criminal Court found officer Y.M., who never appeared at any of the proceedings, guilty of negligence and sentenced him to just six years in prison in March 2017 despite a demand by the prosecutor for 26 years. An appeal by the Doğan family was rejected by the court.
Dilek Doğan’s death sparked public outrage at the time, and many women’s rights and human rights activists attended her funeral and stood by her family.
