As Biden Defers to Israel, Turkey Plans Arrest Warrants for IDF Killers of Aysenur Eygi
"We will make every effort to ensure that this crime does not go unpunished," the Turkish Foreign Ministry said as new evidence undercut the Israeli military's claims about the killing.
Turkey's justice minister said Thursday that the country intends to seek international arrest warrants over the Israeli military's killing of Aysenur Eygi, a dual citizen of the United States and Turkey who was shot in the head by an unidentified IDF soldier during a protest in the illegally occupied West Bank last week.
Yilmaz Tunc told journalists that Turkey's chief prosecutor's office is currently investigating "those responsible for the martyrdom and murder of our sister Aysenur Ezgi Eygi" and plans to pursue arrest warrants over the killing, Reutersreported Thursday.
The outlet noted that Tunc said the Turkish government "had evidence regarding the killing," without offering specifics.
Turkey's Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, issued a statement Thursday saying Eygi "was deliberately targeted and killed by Israeli soldiers during a peaceful demonstration in solidarity with Palestinians in the occupied West Bank."
"We once again condemn this murder committed by the genocidal Netanyahu government," the statement continued. "We will make every effort to ensure that this crime does not go unpunished."
"We fear that if this pattern of impunity does not end with Ms. Eygi, it will only continue to escalate."
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) acknowledged in a statement earlier this week that it is "highly likely" Eygi was killed "by IDF fire" but insisted she "was hit indirectly and unintentionally" in the heat of a "violent riot."
But a Washington Postinvestigation published Wednesday undercuts that narrative, which eyewitnesses have repeatedly disputed in recent days.
Citing testimony from more than a dozen eyewitnesses as well as video and photographic evidence, the Post reported that "Eygi was shot more than a half-hour after the height of confrontations in [the West Bank village of] Beita, and some 20 minutes after protesters had moved down the main road—more than 200 yards away from Israeli forces."
The IDF "declined to answer questions from The Post about why its forces fired toward the demonstrators so long after they had retreated, and from a distance where they posed no apparent threat," the U.S. newspaper added.
The Post published its investigation shortly after U.S. President Joe Biden faced backlash for parroting the IDF's claim that Eygi's killing was "apparently an accident." Biden later issued a statement saying the "shooting that led to her death is totally unacceptable."
With the Biden administration deferring to the Israeli military's investigation and declining to launch its own probe, U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) called for a "thorough independent U.S. investigation, led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), into the killing of Ms. Eygi," who recently graduated from the University of Washington.
"Tragically, Washington state is no stranger to this issue," Jayapal and Murray wrote in a letter to Biden and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. "In 2003, Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old U.S. citizen and college student from Olympia, Washington, was killed while peacefully protesting the demolition of homes in Gaza. Despite over 70 members of Congress calling for an independent investigation, no such investigation was undertaken."
"We fear that if this pattern of impunity does not end with Ms. Eygi, it will only continue to escalate," they added. "It is imperative that the United States take concrete and decisive action to better protect American citizens."
