Mikail Ekinci was shot and killed by law enforcement officers during an operation carried out in Gulabaxça (Gülbahçe) village in the Çermik district of Diyarbakır on 1 April 2023.
Mikail Ekinci, aged 28, had been wanted as a suspect in an intentional killing that took place in Çermik in 2021. Although arrest warrants had been issued for him and two other suspects in the same incident, they could not be located during four operations carried out to apprehend them. The case, which was filed in 2022 before the Diyarbakır 12th Assize Court following the investigation into the incident, was still pending. Approximately two years later, law enforcement officers obtained information about the location where Mikail and the other two suspects were hiding. In order to execute the arrest warrant issued by the Diyarbakır 12th High Criminal Court, it was decided that searches would be conducted at 10 different addresses on 1 April 2023, that the suspects would be apprehended, and that items related to the offence would be seized.
According to the crime scene report drawn up at 12.00 on 1 April 2023, teams from the Çermik District Police Department’s Public Order, Homicide, Special Operations and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Unit conducted drone surveillance over the village on the day of the incident. According to the drone operator, Mikail Ekinci left the barn at 07.00, got on the motorcycle parked in front of the house and began fleeing towards the stream. Guided by the drone, law enforcement officers pursued Ekinci. After fleeing for some time, Ekinci entered a field and hid among the grass. Law enforcement officers issued a “stop” warning and fired shots into the air while searching the field. Ekinci emerged from his hiding place and continued to flee. At that point, law enforcement officers assessed an object in his hand to be a long-barrelled firearm. As Ekinci continued fleeing towards the stream, law enforcement officers continued firing shots into the air. The report stated that Ekinci then turned around and fired three shots towards the law enforcement officers. In response, the law enforcement officers initially fired three to four shots and, when Ekinci continued to flee, fired four to five more shots. A short while later, Ekinci emerged from the stream bed into the field and lay down on the ground. The law enforcement officers who approached him determined that he had been injured, provided first aid and called an ambulance. Mikail Ekinci was taken to hospital, where he died.
On 1 April 2023, an on-site inspection was conducted at the scene by the Çermik Public Prosecutor’s Office. According to the findings, a handgun was found at the scene along Mikail Ekinci’s escape route, and the 30 rounds of ammunition inside it had not been fired.
In the days following the incident, further searches were conducted at the scene by teams from the Provincial Gendarmerie Command and K9 units. During the fifth search of the scene, this time conducted by the Provincial Police Department, another handgun was found.
On 5 April 2023, the Diyarbakır Branch of the Human Rights Association released its report on the incident. During their inquiry, interviews were conducted with the Ekinci family and villagers. According to eye witness accounts, Mikail Ekinci was fleeing barefoot during the incident, and given the characteristics of the incident scene, it was in any case not possible for him to escape. Furthermore, in the event that law enforcement officers were unable to apprehend him, it would have been sufficient for them to fire at Mikail Ekinci's non-vital areas in order to overcome his resistance. In addition, after the incident, the Ekinci family's home was raided, and members of the family were subjected to torture and ill-treatment.
According to the ‘Expert Examination Report’ prepared by the Van Gendarmerie Forensic Laboratory Directorate of the Gendarmerie General Command on 19 April 2023, no gunshot residue was detected on swabs taken from Mikail Ekinci’s right hand, left hand or face. Gunshot residue was detected on swabs taken from the right hands, left hands and faces of law enforcement officers Lokman Karakılçık, Mazlum İnan (who reportedly changed his name to Aybars Pusat by court order) and İlyas Koçaş. It was also determined that the cartridge cases found at the scene had been fired from the handguns belonging to these three officers.
According to the ‘Video Examination and Analysis Report’ prepared by law enforcement officers following the examination of footage from law enforcement vehicles on 6 May 2023, no footage showing the moment of Mikail Ekinci’s death could be found.
The ‘Expert Examination Report’ prepared by the Van Gendarmerie Forensic Laboratory Directorate of the Gendarmerie General Command on 12 May 2023 stated that no ballistic examination could be conducted on the metal fragment removed from Mikail Ekinci’s body during the autopsy.
An expert examination of the memory card used in the drone deployed during the incident was unable to determine what object Mikail Ekinci had been holding due to the angle of the footage.
On 3 July 2024, the Diyarbakır Public Prosecutor’s Office submitted an indictment requesting that criminal proceedings be instituted against law enforcement officers Mazlum (Aybars Pusat) İnan, İlyas Koçaş and Lokman Karakılçık for killing with dolus eventualis. The request for their prosecution was based on the fact that no footage of the moment of death was found in the law enforcement vehicle cameras throughout the incident; no gunshot residue was detected on Mikail Ekinci’s body; although no weapon had been found during searches of the scene involving K9 units, a weapon was found during the fifth search; and, as the defendants were special operations police officers, they were expected to possess technical shooting proficiency.
The first hearing in the case, registered under Case No. 2024/331 before the Diyarbakır 6th High Criminal Court, was held on 14 January 2025. Following the hearing of the defendants, complainants and witnesses, the court decided that the case file would be sent to the prosecutor’s office between hearings for the prosecutor’s opinion.
At the second hearing, held on 17 April 2025, there had been a change in the composition of the trial bench. It was stated that camera footage belonging to H.Y., who lived in a neighbouring house, had been obtained in order to investigate footage covering the scene and had been sent to the Informatics Branch of the Diyarbakır Gendarmerie Command for analysis. The court decided to hear the ambulance personnel on duty on the day of the incident as witnesses. Some of them were heard at the hearing, while the court ordered the necessary steps to be taken to hear the other two ambulance personnel as witnesses, rejected the request for detention, and ordered an inquiry into the status of the analysis of the camera footage obtained from the neighbouring house.
At the third hearing, held on 30 September 2025, an ambulance worker was heard as a witness. The witness stated that upon arriving at the scene, they had been made to wait at a distance, that they had informed the 112 emergency call centre of this, and heard gunshots while waiting. An order to compel the appearance of the other ambulance worker as a witness was issued. The court also ordered that records from the 112 emergency call centre and police radio communications be obtained, that the administrative investigation file be requested again, and that an investigation be conducted into why the drone footage had been interrupted.
At the most recent hearing, held on 3 February 2026, the court decided that an on-site inspection would be conducted at the scene on 1 April 2026.
At the hearing held on 25 June 2026, an expert report prepared following the on-site inspection conducted on 1 April was submitted to the court. The eight-page report contained photographs of the incident scene and concluded that the incident involved elements that were technically open to question in terms of self-defence and proportionality. Counsel for the intervening parties stated that the report supported their submissions and that evidence in the case file had been tampered with. The court ordered the prosecution to submit its opinion on the merits by the next hearing.
The next hearing will be held on 24 November 2026 at 09.00.