ANKARA: Turkey is investigating the killing of a US-Turkish activist during a protest in the West Bank, the justice minister said Thursday, adding that Ankara would press the UN to act.
Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, was shot dead last week while demonstrating against Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank town of Beita.
The United Nations rights office has accused Israeli forces of shooting Eygi in the head. The Israeli army has acknowledged opening fire in the area and has said it is looking into the case.
“Turkey has opened an investigation,” Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said.
He also said that Turkey would take the case to the United Nations and push for an independent inquiry into her death.
“We will work to ensure that the (UN) Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial and Arbitrary Executions takes immediate action, and that an independent commission of inquiry is established and prepare a report,” he said.
US urges Israel to conclude probe into killing of American activist in West Bank
Tunc said Turkey would forward that report to the UN Human Rights Council and to the ongoing case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
“We will continue to defend the right of our sister Aysenur and our Palestinian brothers,” he added.
Turkey’s foreign ministry said the formal procedures for the transfer of the body had been concluded through its embassy in Tel Aviv and consulate in Jerusalem.
“The body of the deceased will arrive in Turkey tomorrow,” it said. “We once again condemn this murder committed by the genocidal Netanyahu government.”
Eygi’s family had been hoping to hold her funeral on Friday but her father said it would now take place a day later.
“The district governor told us that she will arrive in Istanbul tomorrow morning, then to Izmir. The funeral will take place here in Didim on Saturday,” Mehmet Suat Eygi, 60, told journalists following his arrival from the US, where he lives.
“It’s sad but it’s also a source of pride for Didim,” Eygi’s uncle Ali Tikkim, 67, who lives in the town, said on Wednesday.
“It’s important that a young girl, martyred and sensitive to the world is buried here.”
Tikkim said Eygi’s mother, who lives in Seattle on the US west coast, had arrived in Didim on Wednesday.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed to ensure “that Aysenur Ezgi’s death does not go unpunished”.
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