On March 11th Berkin Elvin, a 15-year-old Turkish boy died after spending 269 days in a coma. The teenager had been buying bread in his neighborhood last June, when a tear gas canister struck his skull during a brutal police crackdown against citywide demonstrations.

As news of the boy's death spread, Istanbul's streets filled with mourners and protestors shouting anti-government slogans in a massive outpouring of grief and rage against police brutality and the increasingly authoritarian government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The demonstrations, which led to violent clashes with police were the largest and angriest protests seen in Turkey since last summer. less