State official says 19-year-old with dual US-Turkish citizenship among dead in Israeli raid
By APThursday, June 3, 2010
US official: US-Turkish man dead in Israeli raid
WASHINGTON — One of the nine people killed in the Israeli raid on an aid flotilla in the eastern Mediterranean was a 19-year-old man with dual U.S.-Turkish citizenship, the State Department said Thursday.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley identified the victim as Furkan Dogan and said U.S. authorities in Turkey haved met with Dogan’s father to express condolences and to offer U.S. consular services.
The spokesman said Dogan was born in Troy, N.Y.
Crowley said it was too early to say what action the U.S. might take in light of the death. He said Dogan died of a gunshot wound but he declined to confirm news reports that Dogan had been shot multiple times in the head.
“We are in contact with the Israeli government to obtain more information,” he said. “We have made no decisions at this point on specific actions the United States government will take, but as we’ve already stated we expect the Israeli government to conduct a prompt, impartial, credible and transparent investigation that conforms to international standards and gets to all the facts surrounding this tragic incident.”
Asked whether the FBI was involved, Crowley replied, “At this point, no.”
“Anytime an American is killed overseas we have the option of evaluating the circumstances and if we think a crime has been committed, then working with the host government we have the option of our own investigation,” Crowley added.
He said U.S. consular officials saw the body in the morgue in Israel but at that point did not know he was a dual citizen.
Another U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, said Dogan was living in the Turkish town of Kayseri.
He was among eight of the dead from Monday’s Israeli raid being mourned at a funeral in Istanbul Thursday.
