JINHA

ISTANBUL - Police drowned the Gazi neighborhood of Istanbul in tear gas until night yesterday to stop a crowd from retrieving the body of slain leftist GünayÖzarslan.

Police assassinated GünayÖzarslan in a private home in Istanbul's Bağcılar neighborhood during a massive police raid in Turkey on Friday. Lawyers say all evidence indicates that police assassinated Günay, allegedly a member of Turkish armed leftist group DHKP-C, in her sleep.

For days, the forensic medical institute refused to surrender Günay's body to her family. Yesterday, as a crowd attempted to carry Günay's body to the cemetery, police attacked the crowd continually with tear gas throughout the day.

Yesterday afternoon, the crowd in the Gazi neighborhood of Istanbul wanted to carry Günay's coffin from the cemevi (place of worship of the Alevi Shiite denomination) to the cemetery, but armored police vehicles blocked their way and clashes broke out. As police attacked the crowd with rubber bullets, tear gas capsules and pressurized water, the people responded with Molotov cocktails.

"For three days they won't give me her body. What's the reason?" said MakbuleÖzarslan, Günay's mother. "She was 30 years old. She was my child. My child is blameless." She called on the Turkish state to respect her belief and let her bury her daughter's body.

The people of Gazi intend to bring Günay's body to the cemetery today.

(zd/cm)