Askeri Çoban was a construction worker, originally from Diyarbakır. He went out to give the putschist soldiers a democracy lesson upon President Erdoğan’s call, on the night of July 15th. Heading to the Bosphorus Bridge saying, “If we don’t go out tonight, our dignity will vanish,” he died a martyr, targeted by malicious bullets.
Askeri found out about the malicious coup attempt with his children, at night. He decided to go to Kısıklı with his son saying, “If we don’t go out tonight, our dignity vanishes.” Learning about the events augmenting on the Bosphorus Bridge, Çoban left his son at Kısıklı and headed to the Bosphorus Bridge to join the crowd resisting putschist soldiers.
Fighting courageously on the Bosphorus Bridge, Çoban was shot in the head by a sniper around 05:20. Çoban, who was searched for by his family all night long, was found with the help from a citizen who was beside him when he was shot.
Askeri’s son Ferdi talked about that night as follows, “He left me to keep my mother and sister company. First, they went to Kısıklı, my father left my brother there and walked to the Bosphorus Bridge. My brother and my father were in contact on the phone. My father was martyred on the spot when a bullet fired by a sniper hit his head at 05:20. When we called him, a stranger picked up the phone and said that my father was wounded and taken into surgery. We heard the sad news when we went to the hospital.”
Father of seven, 53-year-old Martyr Askeri Çoban was buried in his hometown, Ergani.
Located in Ergani, Diyarbakır an elementary and middle school were renamed after Askeri Çoban who was from Ergani, Diyarbakır.
