Tahir Elci, a pro-Kurdish lawyer and president of the Diyarbakir Bar Association in southeastern Turkey, was killed moments following a press conference Saturday, according to CNN. The prominent human rights lawyer was a lead attorney in Kurdish issues, leading the U.S. Embassy to call Elci "a courageous defender of human rights."
"The moment the statement ended, the crowd was sprayed with bullets," said Omer Tastan, a local official from the pro-Kurdish HDP party.
After he was gunned down during a street fight between the Kurdistan Worker's Party and plain-clothed Turkish police, the bar association called his deadly shooting an assassination.
Moments before he was killed, Tahir #Elci was calling for peace: "we do not want guns, clashes or operations here". Then shot dead.
— Mark Lowen (@marklowen) November 28, 2015
"The crime scene was consciously damaged by this armed assault of terrorist elements who wanted to prevent the shedding of light on the event," said the Turkish Interior Ministry.
"We are determined to shed light on today's fatal incident in Diyarbakir. An official investigation has been launched and we have assigned four inspectors to this case," said a Turkish government official, according to BBC News. "At this time, we believe that Mr Elci may have been caught in the crossfire but we aren't ruling out the possibility that a third party directly targeted him."
"This incident shows that Turkey's fight against terror is right," said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who condemned the attack. "Our struggle will continue till the end. We will not stop. We will not be tired. We will continue to be decisive in our fight against terrorism."
The shooting started protests in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and Diyarbakir, with Istanbul protesters being dispersed by riot police in efforts to stop riots and continued unrest. The neighborhood in which Elci was shot has been given a curfew.
Two other policemen died in the firefight, and a number of journalists were wounded, Al Jazeera reported.
Tahir Elci will be laid to rest Sunday morning in Diyarbakir.
Shocked and depressed by the murder of my friend Tahir Elci. A good and brave man cut down. A human rights defender over many decades. — Richard Moore (@UKAmbRichard) November 28, 2015
#TahirElci was killed by a single bullet to the head. CNN the only broadcaster so far to call it an assassination: https://t.co/BJm8dxSuok
— Ranj Alaaldin (@RanjAlaaldin) November 28, 2015
