Emrah Gezer was together with a group of friends celebrating their friend’s birthday in a bar in the Turkish capital, Ankara. They were drinking and singing Kurdish songs. Next to their table sat a woman, Sinem Uludag, together with her two friends, who were police officers from a special operations team, Serkan and Levent Akbulut.

Sinem Uludag heckled the group saying, “You are PKK. I refuse to be sitting in the same room with PKK”. (The Kurdish PKK is listed as a terrorist organisation by the European Union). Alcohol aggravated the situation. They started cursing and throwing glasses. The waiters got in-between. The owner of the bar made them leave the premises. Outside, one of the men who had been with the Sinem Uludag shot Emrah Gezer.

The first hearing of the case was on 11 February 2010 at the Ankara 9th High Criminal Court. Here, a member of the birthday party group, Baran Gezer, stated, “We were singing songs at the bar and enjoying ourselves. We sang Kurdish songs as well. (...) When we went out afterwards, we heard the noise of weapons. I saw Emrah falling to the ground. A person called Serkan shot my brother directly.”
The two police officers conceded that the incident evolved “because of a Kurdish song”.

The two police officers Serkan and Levent Akbulut are charged with intentional murder, and Sinem Uludag who heckled the group is charged with inciting murder.

The next hearing of the case is on 6 April 2010.


Sources

Staff of Antenna Freedom of Expression
Antenna-tr.org

Kurd Net – 22 February 2010:
'Killed for singing a Kurdish folk song in Turkey'
(Also published by supportkurds.org)