Ayşegül Eygi’s Body is Being Brought to Turkey

The Turkish Foreign Ministry announced that the procedures for the transfer of the body of Ayşegül Ezgi Eygi, who was shot dead by Israeli soldiers during a demonstration in the occupied West Bank on September 6, to Turkey have been completed.

The Ministry reported that the procedures carried out by the Tel Aviv Embassy and the Jerusalem Consulate General have been concluded, and that Eygi’s body is expected to arrive in Turkey on Friday.

According to ministry sources, Eygi’s body is planned to be taken from Tel Aviv to Baku on Thursday night, where the Baku Embassy will receive the body.

It is reported that the burial may be in the Didim district of Aydın.

So who is Ayşenur Ezgi?

Born in Turkey, raised in the USA

Eygi was born in Antalya on July 27, 1998. He moved to the USA with his family shortly after.

He spent the rest of his life in this country, but according to family members, he would occasionally visit Turkey.

A significant portion of extended family members live in Turkey.

Eygi’s Facebook profile also includes photos taken in Turkey in past years.

He began taking part in political campaigns at a young age

It is reported that Eygi took part in political campaigns before starting his university education in the USA.

Socialist Alternative, one of the socialist groups operating in the US, made a statement following Eygi’s death, stating that Eygi had members between 2015 and 2018.

The article states that Eygi’s joining the group coincides with the rise of Democratic Party senator Bernie Sanders, who has a democratic socialist stance.

According to the article, when Donald Trump won the 2016 elections, Eygi played an active role in anti-Trump protests, led student protests and made influential speeches in some protests.

The site also includes news and videos about Eygi’s anti-Trump speeches, as well as an article from 2016 describing a protest they attended as students in Seattle.

In this article, where Eygi quotes Karl Marx, he says, “This election has lit a fire and we are that fire, burning for a future in which we believe.”

According to the group’s article, Eygi actively participated in the environmental campaign to protest and block the oil pipeline planned to be built in the US state of North Dakota between 2016 and 2017, and stayed at the protest camp set up there.

From anti-Trump demonstrations to Palestinian protests

In later years, Eygi studied psychology at the University of Washington and also minored in Middle Eastern languages ​​and culture.

According to the university’s statement, Eygi was also a peer mentor who helped welcome new students to the psychology department.

Eygi’s political activism continued during his university years.

During this period, he also actively participated in campaigns regarding Palestine.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA), Nilan Aydın, one of Eygi’s university friends, stated that “he also participated in protests against Israel’s attack on Gaza from time to time, Eygi was also present at these protests and provided financial aid to Palestine many times.”

Speaking to the Guardian newspaper, Aria Fani, a lecturer at the University of Washington’s Middle Eastern Languages ​​and Cultures Department, where Eygi also teaches, said Eygi played an active role during the protests at US universities last year.

He says Eygi is one of the organizers of the “People’s University for the Liberated Zone of Gaza” on the University of Washington campus, one of dozens of pro-Palestinian camps set up on campus during the protests.

Fani also states that “Eygi has an attitude that criticizes Turkish nationalism and violence against Kurds.”

“He was very critical of U.S. foreign policy and white supremacy in the U.S., and Israel was no exception,” he says.

Eygi graduated from university about three months ago.

At the graduation ceremony, he unfurled a Palestinian flag with the words “Free Palestine” on it.

During this period, he joined the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), which works for the rights of Palestinians.

The ISM movement has had members killed during the campaign in past years.

American Rachel Corrie, who was killed by an Israeli bulldozer in 2003, is one of these names.

He went to the West Bank as a volunteer

Eygi recently decided to go to Palestine.

Speaking to the Guardian newspaper, Aria Fani said she tried to persuade him to change his mind.

But he also says that he went to the West Bank and participated in protests when he was young:

“I tried to talk him out of it, but I was in a very weak position because I had already done it myself. He was very, very principled in his activism in this short life that he had lived.”

“She was incredibly knowledgeable about what life was like in the West Bank. She was not a naive traveler. This experience was the culmination of years of her activism,” Fani says.

A statement released by her family after her death reads: “Ayşenur felt compelled to travel to the West Bank to stand in solidarity with Palestinian civilians who continue to be subjected to oppression and violence.”

Her friend Nilan Aydin, AA “He was telling me that he wanted to go there and help those people. But everyone says that and I never thought he would actually do it,” she says in the interview.

How did the shooting incident happen?

The incident on September 6 took place in the town of Beyta in the city of Nablus.

Since 2020, demonstrations have been held in Beita against Israel’s illegal settlement projects.

Eygi also attended the demonstration on September 6.

Eygi was shot in the head during the demonstration and was taken to hospital but died.

Eyewitnesses and Palestinian media reported that Eygi was shot by Israeli soldiers.

Israeli-Jewish activist Jonathan Pollak, who attended the protest with Eygi, told the BBC that he heard two shots fired during the incident.

Pollak said he saw “soldiers aiming on the roof” and heard two shots fired “one or two seconds apart.”

“I heard someone calling me and saying in English, ‘Help us. We need help. We need help.’ I ran towards them,” he said.

He said that he saw Eygi “lying on the ground under an olive tree, his head covered in blood” and continued as follows:

“I put my hand behind her back and tried to stop the bleeding. I took her pulse, it was very weak.”

Friday’s demonstration was the first protest Eygi attended with ISM, Pollak said.

The ISM claimed that Eygi was deliberately killed by the Israeli army.

An anonymous ISM volunteer made the following statement:

“We were standing on the road, about 200 meters away from the soldiers, and a sniper was clearly visible on the roof. Our volunteer friend was standing a little further back, next to an olive tree with some other activists. Despite this, the army deliberately shot him in the head.”

ISM states that 17 Palestinian demonstrators have been killed in demonstrations in Beita to date.

The Israeli army announced that a full-fledged investigation into the incident has been launched.

What were the reactions?

His family argued that an Israeli investigation would not be sufficient given the circumstances of Eygi’s shooting.

“We call on President Biden, Vice President Harris, and Secretary of State Blinken to launch an independent investigation into the unlawful killing of a U.S. citizen and hold those responsible accountable,” the family’s statement said.

In a statement, the Turkish Foreign Ministry described Eygi’s death as “murder” and noted that he was “killed by Israeli occupation soldiers in the city of Nablus.”

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in a statement, “We condemn Israel’s barbaric intervention against a civilian protest against the occupation in the West Bank.”

Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc later said in a statement that the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office had launched an investigation into the incident and that the relevant reports would be submitted to the cases against Israel at the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court.

Different assessments were made by the US administration.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken argued that the killing of Eygi “cannot be legitimized” and shared his determination that there was no “provocation” in the incident.

Blinken also called on Israel to make “radical changes” to its operations in the West Bank.

US President Joe Biden described Eygi’s death as an “accident.”

Eygi’s husband, Hamid Mazhar Ali, of Pakistani origin living in the US, made a statement opposing Biden’s rhetoric and argued that “this was not an accident and the killers should be held responsible.”

In a new statement made by the Israeli army on September 10, it was stated that “there is a high probability that Eygi was killed by an ‘indirect and unintentional’ shot that was not directed at him.”

The statement, which claimed that “stones were thrown at Israeli soldiers during the demonstration,” stated that the bullet that killed Eygi was aimed “not at him, but at the chief instigator of the uprising against Israeli security forces.”

The statement also included the sentence, “The Israeli army expresses its deepest sorrow for the death of Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi.”

Some protest participants who spoke to ISM and the media denied the stone-throwing allegation.

Mock funeral held in West Bank

After the incident, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs started work to have Ezgi’s body taken to Turkey.

A funeral ceremony was held for Eygi in the West Bank on September 9.

Eygi’s body was taken from Rafidiye Hospital in the city of Nablus with the participation of international solidarity activists, Palestinians, Turkish Consul General in Jerusalem Ambassador Ismail Cobanoglu, Nablus Governor Gassan Daglas and civil society representatives.

Eygi’s coffin was placed in the ambulance to be transported with an official ceremony accompanied by a band.

At the ceremony, a banner reading “May his blood pave the stones of freedom, rest in peace our friend”, Palestinian flags and Eygi’s picture were carried.

Meanwhile, commemoration ceremonies for Ezgi continue in different states of the USA.

Rachel Corrie’s parents, Cindy and Craig Corrie, said in a statement that there were similarities between their daughter’s death and Eygi’s death, and that they were concerned that the incident would go unpunished in an investigation into Eygi, as in the investigation into their daughter.

Funeral plan in Turkey

Eygi’s body is planned to be sent from Tel Aviv to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, and then taken to Turkey and buried in Didim.

Eygi’s mother, father and wife are also in Turkey for the funeral.

The funeral is thought to be held in the next few days.