A Turkish-American activist who was killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank was laid to rest on Saturday in her hometown in Turkey with thousands lining the streets and anti-Israeli feelings in the country rising from a conflict that threatens to spread across the region.
Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-old woman from Seattle, was shot dead on September 6 by an Israeli soldier during a demonstration against Israeli West Bank settlements, according to an Israeli protester who witnessed the shooting.
Thousands of people lined the streets in the Turkish coastal town of Didim on the Aegean Sea, as Ms Eygi was buried in a coffin draped in a Turkish flag, which was taken from her family home.
A portrait of her wearing her graduation gown was propped against the coffin as people paid their respects.
Her body was earlier brought from a hospital to her family home and Didim’s Central Mosque.
Turkey has condemned the killing and announced it will conduct its own investigation into her death.
“We are not going to leave our daughter’s blood on the ground and we demand responsibility and accountability for this murder,” Numan Kurtulmus, the speaker of Turkey’s parliament told mourners at the funeral.
On Friday, an autopsy had been carried out at Izmir Forensic Medicine Institute. Kurtulmus said the examination showed Ms Eygi was hit by a round that struck her in the back of the head below her left ear.
The Israeli military said on Tuesday that Ms Eygi was likely shot “indirectly and unintentionally” by Israeli forces.
Her death was condemned by US secretary of state Antony Blinken as the United States, Egypt and Qatar push for a cease-fire in the 11-month-long Israel-Hamas war and the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel