Taher Ilchi, a member of the board of advisors of the Human Rights Activists in Iran, who had joined their colleagues in July 2013, was assassinated in a malicious act in Turkey.

Mr. Ilchi was a well-known lawyer and human rights activist from Turkey who had remarkable activities in the field of peace efforts. Mr. Ilchi was the head of the Diyarbakir Bar Association in Turkey and represented victims in many important legal cases in both domestic courts in Turkey and the European Court of Human Rights.

Mr. Ilchi had participation in the establishment of the Human Rights Group (TIHV), membership in the Turkish Bar Association, and membership in the Turkish Human Rights Center in his professional record.

Eyewitnesses at the moment of the assassination say that the assailant ran towards Taher Ilchi and shot him in the head and then fled. After that, a shootout began between the security forces and the attackers. During this clash, one police officer was killed and several others were injured.

Mr. Ilchi, in his final words and while gathered with a group of other lawyers in protest of the destruction of a minaret of one of the old mosques in Diyarbakir, declared: “We are against weapons, conflicts, and acts of violence.”

Humility was one of his personal characteristics that the community recognized him with; unlike many others, he was always approachable with an open mind, cared about the human rights situation in Iran, and advocated for human rights for all regardless of national or racial concerns, contrary to what may seem.

Establishing peace was his aspiration, human rights activists learned a lot from him.

Remembered and forever eternal…