JINHA

AGIRÎ - Turkish state forces killed two teen boys on Wednesday in the town of Diyadin, in Ağrı province. Lawyers have confirmed that the two boys were defenseless civilians.

Lawyers have released a preliminary assessment of the events of Wednesday night in the town of Diyadin, located in the largely Kurdish Ağrı province. The Ağrı Bar Association reported that one HPG guerrilla was killed in a clash that broke out in the evening. However, lawyers reported that there was a significant difference between the site of this clash and the place where two children were killed. Therefore, they said, the deaths of the boys could not be explained by saying they were "caught in the clashes."

The two teenage boys, Muhammet Aydemir (15) and Orhan Aslan (16), were working at a bakery at the time of the killing. Lawyers noted that based on Muhammet's father's testimony to the state prosecutor, it was clear that the boy had no interest in politics. He had no relationship with the popular Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), let alone with any guerrilla organization. (In contrast, the provincial governor has claimed that the boys were members of the guerrilla.)

The two boys' bodies were found in the wood yard of the bakery where they worked. Lawyers reported that there were no signs of a clash in the wood yard. The door had not been forced and there were no bullet holes at the scene. Muhammet Aydemir's father reported that he had called his son when clashes began, telling him not to go outside.

"When we consider this, along with the fact that the boy was a high school student and still going to school, it is indisputable that these two individuals were there as part of their shift at work, and that they were somehow killed," said the Bar Association. "As a result, we request that the investigation not be shut down and the deaths of both children not be covered up by connecting them to a so-called 'organization.'"

(gc/cm)