Gila Benmayor - English
Gila Benmayor - English
Gila Benmayor - EnglishYazarın Tüm Yazıları

Is human life more valuable in Greece?

We have been following the incidents that broke out after the police shot to kill 15-year-old Andreas Grigolopoulos in the Greek capital Athens.

I was in the Spanish city of Barcelona when the shooting took place. Spanish television covered the details of the riots for a couple of days. The holiday is over so I returned home. But as far as I can see, the incidents in Athens are spreading around; even the Greek Embassy in Beyoğlu was involved. The walls of the Şişmanoğlu Manor hosting the Greek Embassy were painted red by some youngsters protesting the shooting in Athens. Windows of the Consul General’s vehicle were broken.

Our book of shame
Riots by young people, who are called "anarchists" in Athens yet I preferred to name them protesters, who are demonstrating against the police shooting to kill, spread into Thessaloniki, Barcelona, Madrid, Rome, Bologna and Sophia. The Grigolopoulos case in Athens is important for us from a few angles.

The number of people who died in Turkey as a result of police shooting since the beginning of the year exceeds 20, most of whom were young people such as Baran Tursun in İzmir and Çağdaş Gemik in Antalya, who were shot by the police for not stopping when they were asked to do so.

When you look at the pages of the "book of shame" in Turkey you run a cross the 12-year-old Uğur Kaymaz who was killed together with his father in Mardin’s Kızıltepe district by police shooting. I even do not count the tortures at police stations that were revealed lately.

Can you tell me in which of these incidents people took to the streets, regardless of if they are anarchists? Could this refractory period be named "social apathy?" The state insensitivity is also at issue in Turkey. Two police officers who shot at Grigolopoulos in Greece were arrested. The Greek Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Konstantin Karamanlis who made a public apology regarding the incidents.

Where were you?
If I am not mistaken, none of the policemen who caused the deaths of youngsters in Turkey were arrested. The state institutions excessively defend the police, let alone their detention.

We didn’t hear a public apology from Mr. Prime Minister over the deaths of these young people; neither have we witnessed the resignation of a minister due to such incidents. No one is taking to the streets, no one apologizes and no one resigns over similar cases.

So riots setting human life at naught continue to occur. Let’s go back to the beginning. "Social apathy" and "state insensitivity" nurture each other. When we learn to take to the streets to say "No" to injustice and unfairness, state institutions will perhaps learn to appreciate human life. By the way, let me tell you that I found it odd to see young people protesting in front of the Greek Embassy in Beyoğlu. Where were you all while Tursun and Gemik were shot to death by the police?
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