As Turkey’s elections approach, denial runs deep for Erdogan

ISTANBUL, Turkey—On March 11, Berkin Elvan died after 269 days in a coma.

He was killed by a teargas canister shot by Turkish riot police. He was 15 years old, still a child. But for Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, the boy was a terrorist.

Calling him a terrorist was an easy way out, a way to avoid giving condolences or apologizing for the crime police committed, acting on his orders. Maybe in Erdogan’s “parallel state” Berkin Elvan was a terrorist. But, still, for the rest of us, he was just a kid.

He will be remembered by his family, friends, and hundreds of thousands of Turks who marched in peace and support on the day when young Berkin was buried not as a terrorist, but as a child who was killed on his way out to buy bread.

This, sadly, is only the latest in Erdogan’s denial and apathy about the country he has driven to a dangerous brink.

And just days away from Turkey’s March 30 municipal vote, Prime Minister Erdogan’s party candidates warn of “vanishing ink on ballots.” Still, the ruling AK Party appears to be “on course to maintain its dominance of the electoral map”—a curious feat considering the country's state since protests began last June.