Aysenur Ezgi Eygi by no means noticed an injustice that didn’t transfer her personally.
That’s how associates keep in mind the American Turkish activist, who was fatally shot by Israeli forces within the occupied West Financial institution final week. They are saying she was identified for her empathy, joyous presence and drive to assist oppressed individuals, irrespective of who or the place they’re.
For a lot of in Eygi’s neighborhood in Seattle, Washington, Aysenur — pronounced Aysha-Nour — was a reputation synonymous with laughter and compassion.
“She was a light-weight in any room,” Kelsie Nabass, a pal of Eygi, mentioned.
“She at all times had the most important, brightest smile on her face. She was the pal within the room that may make jokes and little aspect feedback and simply be sure that the vibe was at all times enjoyable. She was very heat and really, very inviting.”
Eygi was 26 years previous. She had large desires and wished to attend graduate faculty to get a regulation diploma. Her life was minimize brief when an Israeli soldier shot her within the head as she was attending an illustration towards an unlawful settler outpost on September 6. Israel has acknowledged its forces “doubtless” fired the deadly bullet.
“She went there to witness the Palestinian individuals and their struggles,” Nabass mentioned. “She was dedicated to the liberation of the Palestinians, and I believe that dedication was her driving power to be there within the first place.”
In response to associates, Eygi has been attending protests all through her life, going again to 2016 – when as a young person, she joined activists at Standing Rock to reject an oil pipeline that posed a risk to Indigenous individuals’s ingesting water in North Dakota.
“From a really younger age, she has been a social justice warrior. She at all times fought towards inequities,” Nabass mentioned.
“I do know that the Palestinian individuals had been crucial to her due to the oppression that they’ve been dealing with for the final 75 years. And I do know that she stood for the liberation of not simply the Palestinian individuals, however the liberation of all individuals.”
‘Large sister vitality’
Eygi was born in Turkey, however she grew up in Seattle on the US West Coast, the place she attended the College of Washington (UW).
Those that knew her say she had a outstanding skill to convey individuals collectively, making a neighborhood round her hospitality, meals and advocacy, particularly in the course of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Her killing has been felt deeply within the numerous social circles that she traversed and related.
Bitaniya Giday, a UW pupil, lamented that she is going to not be capable to hear Eygi’s tales and study from her activism.
“It’s been a fantastic tragedy,” Giday informed Al Jazeera. “I’m simply deeply saddened by the truth that I’ll by no means get to know her higher … She had a deep community. Within the bigger neighborhood, we misplaced a comrade. We misplaced an advocate. We additionally misplaced a sister. And for me, I really feel like I misplaced a mentor.”
Juliette Majid, one other pal of Eygi, pressured that the activist cared for the rights of marginalised individuals within the US and internationally.
“She wore her coronary heart on her sleeve, and he or she was very caring,” Majid mentioned, including that Eygi had “large sister vitality”.
Eygi’s dedication and easy-going nature had been obvious even to those that knew her in passing, like Lubna Alzaroo.
“She was only a very, very joyful particular person; that was my impression about her,” Alzaroo, who solely met Eygi as soon as, informed Al Jazeera. “She was simply very type, had actually type eyes and a really lovely smile. She was very straightforward to speak to.”
Requires accountability
The Turkish American activist’s associates say nothing will fill the void left by her absence or compensate for her loss. For accountability, they need the US authorities to heed her household’s name for an unbiased investigation into her killing.
Earlier this week, the Israeli army mentioned that Eygi was doubtless shot “not directly and unintentionally”.
After the Israeli evaluation, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Vice President Kamala Harris each referred to as the killing “unacceptable”, however they didn’t again an unbiased probe.
Furthermore, the household has not heard from President Joe Biden, who usually calls the kinfolk of US residents killed overseas.
“We’ve waited for President Biden to choose up the cellphone and do the appropriate factor: to name us, supply his condolences, and tell us that he’s ordering an unbiased investigation of the killing of Aysenur,” Hamid Ali, Eygi’s accomplice, mentioned in a press release earlier this week.
Majid, Eygi’s pal, mentioned she will be able to solely amplify the household’s calls for for an unbiased investigation.
“She was a US citizen. She deserves this, and her household deserves justice, and that’s what I need. I need the US authorities to take this significantly and to get justice for Aysenur and maintain the responsible events accountable,” mentioned Majid.
Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, and different officers look like utilizing unusually direct language when criticising Israel for killing, however Giday mentioned something wanting assembly the household’s calls for is “not sufficient”.
On Wednesday, US Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal and Senator Patty Murray despatched a letter to Biden and Blinken requesting “an instantaneous, clear, credible, and thorough unbiased US investigation” led by the FBI.
Sixty-six Washington state legislators additionally made an analogous demand in a joint assertion this week.
In Ezgi Eygi’s reminiscence
The northwestern state has beforehand been by way of the ache of getting a resident killed by the Israeli army: In 2003, activist Rachel Corrie was intentionally crushed and killed by an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza.
Whereas there was by no means any significant accountability for her dying, Corrie — who was from Olympia, Washington — has turn out to be a logo of Palestinian rights activism within the US.
Greater than 20 years after her brutal killing, it’s not unusual to see Corrie’s posters at Palestine solidarity demonstrations.
The reminiscence of Eygi can even stay on, her associates pledge.
“We will likely be speaking about her without end. I do know I’ll carry her reminiscence ahead till the day I die, whether or not I’m in Seattle or not. I’ll convey her reminiscence in each area I enter. We’ll at all times keep in mind her,” Giday mentioned.
However she struggled for phrases when she considered her pal as somebody who will likely be remembered however not bodily current — like Corrie.
“I’ve heard about Rachel for a very long time. It’s onerous to assume of Aysha as a martyr as properly proper now,” Giday informed Al Jazeera.
