ISTANBUL, Turkey – A Turkish special forces officer has been arrested for the January 15 death of a 12-year-old Kurdish boy during demonstrations in the town of Cizre in southeastern Turkey, the Dogan News Agency (DHA) reported.
It said the police officer, identified only by the initials M.N.G., was arrested in Ankara for the shooting death of Nihat Kazanhan, who local witnesses have said was killed as police teams were traveling through predominantly-Kurdish Cizre during unrest in the town.
The suspect was arrested after another police officer, who had been detained for the shooting, confessed that his colleague M.N.G. had done the shooting and testified to a cover-up.
DHA quoted him as saying that he and M.N.G. were traveling in an armored car in Cizre when the latter opened fire on the boy.
He said that four officers were in the vehicle at the time, and along with their individual police weapons and tear gas guns M.N.G. was also carrying a pump action rifle, provided by Mardin’s special operations unit.
He also added that he and M.N.G. opened fire on crowds on the street with gas canisters, after a group of children began to throw stones at them.
M.N.G. then took the rifle and fired it three or four times on the children without targeting specifically, according to the testimony of the initial suspect, identified only as H.V.
“One child fell after he opened fire. Me and our superior saw clearly that M.N.G. had fired and the child was shot,” the news agency quoted H.V. as saying.
“M.N.G. later went back to the scene where Kazanhan was shot, collected cartridge cases fired from the rifle as well as the canisters, and buried them in the garden of the station,” H.V. said.
He added he had earlier given false testimony about the incident to protect his fellow officers in the team, and that he had not expected anyone to be arrested in the probe over the killing.
H.V. was released after testifying and following M.N.G’s arrest, DHA reported.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said after the shooting that Kazanhan had not been killed by the police. “Those who claim that he was killed by a police bullet are provocateurs,” Davutoglu had said.
About two weeks previously, a 14-year-old boy was also killed during clashes in Cizre between security forces and a group affiliated with the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H), an affiliate of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Cizre slipped into its worst turmoil in years following deadly clashes between pro-PKK and Islamist Kurds in December. Those clashes left three people dead and five injured.
Thirty-five people died in early October after Kurds rioted in several southeastern cities over what they perceived as the government's refusal to help Syrian Kurds fighting Islamic State (ISIS) in the besieged town of Kobane, across the border in Syria.
