The people of Antakya are demonstrating for Abdullah Cömert who lost his life by a police attack. 

While the entire Turkey has risen against the fascism of AKP (Justice and Development Party), Abdullah Cömert, a CHP (Republican People’s Party) member, lost his life after being brutally attacked by the police in Antakya last night. People have started to gather again in front of Cömert’s home in Gazi Neighborhood for the youngster who lost his life because of the police attack involving the use of rubber bullets and gas canisters.

Later, the people of Antakya started marching towards Akdeniz Hospital, where the dead body of Cömert is being kept, holding a placard that reads: “Comrade Abdullah is immortal / Murderer police!”
The people of Antakya started to march towards the spot where Abdullah Cömert was murdered chanting together: “The murderer state shall pay!” It was found out that the police are dropping by shops based in Pınarlar Neighborhood of Antakya and telling them: “There are going to be big demonstrations for 2 days. You will shut your shops down.”
Constantly increasing in number, the people marched with the slogans of “Resign government!” and “Murderer state!”.

The people of Antakya reached the spot where Cömert was shot, yet the funeral coach could not proceed due to the crowds who filled the streets of Antakya. Therefore, the coffin of Cömert had to be moved on shoulders with the slogan “Murderer Erdoğan”. All shopkeepers in Samandağ and Harbiye shut their shutters down.
The funeral coach of Abdullah Cömert could not move on because of the crowd. This is why Cömert’s coffin had to be carried on the shoulders of the people. Tens of thousands of Antakya residents marched to the graveyard and their “Murderer Erdoğan” slogans resounded all around the city.
After having arrived at the graveyard, the crowd buried Cömert’s funeral. Following the burial, they gathered at the spot where Cömert was shot once again. Insistent on not leaving the streets, the people got attacked by the police. The people of Antakya then withdrew to Armutlu Neighborhood, which was also attacked by the police. However, the people pushed the police back and then built a barricade on the streets.

The police kept on uncontrollably attacking the people in Armutlu. In turn, the people of Antakya resisted behind the barriers they built against 5 Scorpion response vehicles, 1 TOMA (acronym for Social Commotion Response Vehicle) and thousands of riot police. The police failed to scale the barricade and the people returned the tear gas canisters they had thrown to them.
As the clash went on, the TOMA broke the barricade and moved into the crowd, but the people repelled the police once again. The barricade was restored.

Scorpion vehicles moved along alleys during the clash and attacked. The barricades were set on fire at the same time. The clashes went on in all alleys of Armutlu.

The people’s resistance expanded. Barricades were built in Harbiye and Samandağ and in front of Doğuş Schools and the Halen Park. The police continued to attack with rubber bullets, tear gas and TOMA’s.

The police’s efforts of piercing through the barricades yielded no results, because the neighborhood residents of Armutlu backed the protesters and helped them reinforce the barricade. They throw on the street their armchairs, chairs, tables and whatever they had that could consolidate the barricade.

One of the protesters got injured by a gas shell which was shot at him by the police directly and on purpose. As a result of the shell being shot directly from a close distance, it hit the protester’s left eye. He was taken to the hospital right away. Following the recent violent attack of the police in Antakya, Scorpions and TOMA’s entered all alleys. The police tried to detain the protesters in the alleys. At around 03:00, the clashes ended.

 

June 4, 2013