Eymen Hammamı, a sixteen-year-old Syrian refugee working in a bakery in the Vezirköprü district of Samsun in Turkey, was murdered in a knife-assault on the evening of 13 September.

His brother İbrahim Hammamı was with him when he was attacked. İbrahim spoke to Evrensel: “As we were waiting by the roadside, I had my motorcycle with me. A black car, with four persons in it, approached us. They swore at us for being Syrians and said: ‘Get out of this country'”.

“We told them they were being racist, but didn’t seek to provoke them as we are subjected to this kind of abuse all the time. After a while, they again intercepted us in their car.

“They had called their friends, and now they were around twenty people. Two of them had knife. We said: ‘We are brothers, don’t do that’, but they still attacked. In the meantime, I noticed a police car and I tried to get the attention of the police. When I returned with them, my brother was drenched in blood. We were too late”.

One arrest

Following the incident, five suspects were detained. Two of them were referred to the court and were released after questioning by the prosecutor.

‘Z.Ç.’, one of the suspects, was arrested, whilst two others were released on bail.

Hamamı’s family stated that they would lodge a complaint against all the assailants and they demanded justice.

Eymen’s body will be taken to Vezirköprü district for his funeral.

According to reports, Eymen was working in a bakery for four years and his family had been living in Samsun for nine years.