The family of a Kurdish teenager injured when she was hit by an armored police vehicle in southeastern Turkey has accused officers of pressuring them to withdraw their complaint, the Mezopotamya News Agency (MA) reported.
Elanur Kına, 17, was walking with her mother, Vesile Kına, along a narrow street in the Yüksekova district of Hakkari province on July 24 when she was struck by an armored police vehicle that her mother said was travelling at high speed. Elanur suffered two fractures of her right leg and is hospitalized awaiting surgery.
The family said police sought the help of tribal elders to persuade them to withdraw the complaint.
An investigation into the incident is reportedly underway, but it remains unclear whether any judicial or administrative action has been taken against the officers involved.
The family said armored police vehicles frequently travel at high speed through residential streets in Yüksekova, putting residents at risk.
Incidents involving police vehicles have caused deaths and injuries in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeastern provinces, adding to longstanding concerns about impunity, particularly in cases involving the killing of Kurds by security forces. Human rights groups say flawed probes, decisions of non-prosecution and delays in judicial proceedings have repeatedly prevented accountability in such incidents.
In one case a police officer was ultimately sentenced to just over two years in prison for causing the death by negligence of 19-year-old Şahin Öner, who was struck by an armored vehicle in Diyarbakır in 2013. The proceedings lasted more than a decade and included several retrials and sentence reductions.
