Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, shot dead while protesting against Israeli settlements, has been buried in her family’s hometown of Didim in western Turkey.
Thousands of mourners in Turkey gathered for the funeral of Turkish-American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, who was killed by Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank.
The killing of Eygi, 26, last week sparked strong international condemnation of Israel. She was shot in the head while taking part in a protest on September 6 against illegal Israeli settlements.
On Saturday, family members, friends and well-wishers gathered in Eygi’s hometown of Didim in western Turkey to bury him.
Eygi’s body, wrapped in the Turkish flag and carried by uniformed officers, arrived at his final resting place. A photo of Eygi was placed near the coffin during the funeral at the local mosque.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Resul Serdar, reporting from Didim, said that for several days, Eygi’s family has been receiving visitors from Turkey, the United States and other parts of the world, awaiting the arrival of his remains.
“You can see the disbelief on their faces when they think that Aysenur no longer exists,” Serdar said, adding that tight security measures had been put in place and senior government officials attended her funeral.
Eygi’s coffin was brought to the Aegean coastal city on Saturday after a martyrs’ ceremony at Istanbul airport on Friday.
She was a frequent visitor to Didim and her family said they wanted her to be buried where her grandfather lives and her grandmother is buried.
Eygi’s mother, Rabia Birden, on Friday urged Turkish authorities to seek justice.
“The only thing I ask from our state is to provide justice for my daughter,” she said, as quoted by Turkey’s official Anadolu news agency.
“Deliberately targeted”
“Aysenur’s blood will not be in vain and we will hold those who killed her accountable in international courts,” Numan Kurtulmus, speaker of the Turkish parliament, said in Didim on Saturday.
He said responsibility for the killing “lies with Israel and its supporters.”
Turkey announced this week that it was investigating his death and asked the United Nations to open an independent probe.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed to ensure that “the death of Aysenur Ezgi does not go unpunished.”
US President Joe Biden has called on Israel to “fully account” for Eygi’s death.
The Israeli military said it was likely that Eygi was shot “unintentionally” by forces as they responded to a “violent riot” in Beita, near Nablus.
But mounting evidence contradicts this claim, with witnesses saying Israeli soldiers deliberately killed her.
Among the witnesses to her assassination was an Italian activist who was travelling with Eygi in the ambulance as she was transferred to Beita and then to Nablus, where she was pronounced dead.
“We were clearly visible to the army, nothing was happening next to us… it was a fatal shot,” the Italian activist said.
Eygi’s family has called on the United States to open an independent investigation into his murder, saying an Israeli probe was “inadequate.”
The United Nations said Eygi was taking part in a “peaceful anti-settlement protest” in Beita, the scene of weekly demonstrations, when she was killed.
Eygi was a member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a group protesting the Israeli occupation, and arrived in the West Bank days before her death.