Agencies
Istanbul
A US-Turkish activist killed during a protest last week against Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank was laid to rest on Saturday in her home town in western Turkey.
Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was “martyred” by soldiers of the “terror state Israel” during a “peaceful protest,” Turkish parliamentary speaker Numan Kurtulmus said following funeral prayers in Didim in the Aegean province of Aydin.
Israeli authorities have admitted that Eygi, 26, was “hit indirectly and unintentionally” by Israeli fire. The US and the UN have called for an investigation into the incident. “Murderer Israel,” a group in the crowded funeral procession chanted.
Ankara will take the incident to international courts following its own autopsy and investigation, Kurtulmus said.
Eygi was hit by “direct” bullet fire below her left ear from “close range,” added Kurtulmus, citing an autopsy carried out in the Aegean province of Izmir, some 160 kilometres north of Didim.
Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz, Cabinet members, opposition party leaders and lawmakers also attended the funeral, according to state broadcaster TRT. Eygi’s coffin, draped in a red and white Turkish flag, was seen being carried by police officers on TRT footage.
Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar, reporting from Didim, said that for days, Eygi’s family have been receiving visitors from Turkey, the United States and other parts of the world, as they awaited the arrival of her remains.
“You can see the disbelief in their faces that Aysenur is no more,” Serdar said, adding that tight security measures were in place with top government officials attending her funeral.
Eygi’s body was flown to Turkey on Friday. The Izmir autopsy found a skull fracture and cerebral haemorrhage due to a bullet that entered below the ear, according to TRT.
Eygi was initially taken to a clinic with life-threatening head injuries and later pronounced dead, according to the Ministry of Health in Ramallah. She had been protesting against an Israeli settlement near the Palestinian village of Beita.
Israeli settlements are considered illegal under international law.
