On Jan. 21, at a Burger King in Istanbul's Sirinevler district, an 11-year-old boy named Halil was brutally beaten by the manager of the franchise. A photo of the boy with blood dripping from his face immediately began trending on Turkish social media. Halil is a Syrian refugee. It has become common that groups of three or four refugee kids wait in front of fast food franchises, and as customers leave, some of them give their leftover food to the children or leave their trays with the food and drinks on a table and tell the kids to help themselves. Video of the incident shows that Halil and a few of his friends had run into the restaurant to eat some leftover french fries, and the manager saw them. The manager beat them in front of several customers. One woman in the video becomes visibly upset and challenges the manager. Facing a public uproar, Burger King fired the employee.
Opposition media initially reported the incident under headlines proclaiming that the owner of the franchise is a member of the Justice and Development Party (AKP). This detail did not matter much, however, as pro-AKP media also condemned the child's beating. People from all walks of life commented on social media and on television news broadcasts that it was unacceptable. The reverberating case of Halil in a way became a moment that unified Turkey's divided society. Abdurrahim Boynukalin, president of the AKP’s youth branch, visited Halil’s family and told reporters that he and his siblings will receive assistance to attend school.
The image of Halil bleeding and the sound of his trembling voice saying, “I had gone hungry all day,” touched the hearts of everyone in Turkey. The video shows that Halil never managed to eat the french fries, and there were other hungry kids with him. The others did not make the news.
Cruelty and abuse of minors are, sadly, not exceptional occurrences in Turkey. In the southeast in particular, deaths of Kurdish children have been regular news items for decades. Since Dec. 15, four children have been victims of alleged police brutality in the small town of Cizre, in the border region. The latest incident involves the case of a 12-year-old, Nihat Kazanhan, who was shot and killed Jan. 14. The video of the incident was publicly released and a police officer arrested. The video shows a group of kids throwing stones at the police and the police retaliating by firing tear gas and live ammunition from their armored vehicles. In a surprising announcement, the Interior Ministry accepted that the security forces might be at fault for the incident.
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