Killing of Halim Dener

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Halim Dener
Halim Dener Graffiti am AJZ Bielefeld.jpg
A memorial to Halim Dener in Bielefeld
Born(1977-12-23)23 December 1977
Died30 June 1994(1994-06-30) (aged 16)
Cause of deathShot dead by a police officer

Halim Dener was a 16-year-old Kurdish boy shot dead by a police officer in Hanover, Germany, on 29 June 1994. [1] The Halim Dener Campaign commemorates the anniversary of his death. [2] [3]

Contents

Background

Dener was raised in the village of Parçuk near Keklikdere, experiencing the clashes with Turkish authorities who subjected residents to physical abuse, raids, and arbitrary arrest. Dener had been tortured with beatings and falaka in a Turkish military prison and fled his home village before it was destroyed in a tank offensive by the Turkish Armed Forces. At 16, Dener came to Germany as an unaccompanied minor and in early May 1994, he applied for asylum under the name Ayhan Eser. He lived in Neustadt am Rübenberg and integrated into the Kurdish independence movement in Hanover. [4] [5]

Shooting

In the late evening of 29 June, Dener and several other Kurds went out to put up posters for the National Liberation Front of Kurdistan (ERNK), an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). [6] [7] The PKK had recently been banned in Germany as a terrorist group. [8] At around 23:00, Dener was in the central Steintor pedestrian zone when he encountered several SEK officers. [6] According to the account of the police, what happened next was that he tried to run away and they restrained him. There was a scuffle and when a police officer tried to pick up his gun it fired, killing the boy with a gunshot to the back. [6] [7]

Later events

The disputed artwork is at the entrance to a social centre Ajz-bielefeld.jpg
The disputed artwork is at the entrance to a social centre

On the 20th anniversary of Dener's death in 2014, a proposal was made to rename a square after Dener, as a memorial. In the Linden-Limmer district, council members voted to do so, but the plan was then vetoed by the city council. The cancellation of the plan was controversial; one campaigner said "I don't think anyone would arrive at the idea that they wouldn't name a square after victims of fascism because that would upset neo-Nazis". [6] The Halim Dener Campaign continued to press for a memorial to Dener in the city, but Mayor Stefan Schostok resisted, saying he did not want to inflame tensions between Turks and Kurds. [7]

A mural painted to commemorate Dener in 1994 on a social centre in Bielefeld became subject to a three-year legal battle and was eventually declared in 2020 to be a work of art (and therefore not illegal). [9] [10] In 2021, 300 people marched in memory of Dener and to protest recent police raids on a Kurdish social centre. [11] As of 2024, despite the wishes of Hanover's city administration and the Kurdish Community of Germany  [ de; ku ] (KGD), no plans were in place for a memorial plate due to a lack of communication with police and the Turkish community. [2]

See also

References

  1. https://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/isku/hintergrund/verbot/2003/ausstellung/gefallene/03.htm
  2. 1 2 Hallo Niedersachsen: Vor 30 Jahren: Tödliche Schüsse auf Halim Dener in Hannover - hier anschauen (in German). Retrieved 9 July 2025 via ARD Mediathek.
  3. "Gedenkkundgebung in Hannover: 250 Menschen erinnern an Halim Dener". ANF News (in German). 1 July 2025. Retrieved 9 July 2025.
  4. "MERAL ÇİÇEK: Halim hala 16 yaşında". YeniOzgurPolitika (in Turkish). 9 September 2012.
  5. "AZW 6: Halim Dener Straße, Konstanz". Nadir. 4 July 1995.
  6. 1 2 3 4 "Hanover decides against sign for teen shot by police". Deutsche Welle. 19 May 2017. Archived from the original on 12 November 2020. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
  7. 1 2 3 Schmollack, Simone (29 June 2019). "Tod in Hannover: Eine Tafel, ein Platz, ein Stein [Death in Hanover: A plaque, a square, a stone]". Die Tageszeitung (in German). Archived from the original on 29 October 2020. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
  8. Allen, Arthur (25 March 1994). "Kurdish Protests Fail to Hit Their Mark in Germany". AP News. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
  9. Reichenbach, Jens (19 June 2020). "Gericht kippt Verbot für umstrittenes Bielefelder Graffiti [Court overturns ban on controversial Bielefeld graffiti]". Neue Westfälische (in German). Retrieved 13 January 2022.
  10. "AJZ Bielefeld hat gewonnen: Halim Dener bleibt! [AJZ Bielefeld won: Halim Dener stays!]". ANF News (in German). 25 November 2020. Archived from the original on 24 January 2021. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
  11. "Todestag von Halim Dener: 300 Menschen protestieren gegen Polizeigewalt [Anniversary of Halim Dener's death: 300 people protest against police violence]". Hannoversche Allgemeine (in German). 4 July 2021. Archived from the original on 3 July 2021. Retrieved 13 January 2022.