Ankara - Turkey's leading human rights campaigner, Mr Akin Birdal, regained consciousness yesterday after he was critically wounded in a gun attack blamed by his colleagues on ultra-right-wing gangs. About 1,500 people demonstrated in a main shopping street in Istanbul in protest at the attack.
"He is now speaking and he understands what we are saying. He has had a cup of tea and his general condition is good," a hospital doctor said. But he added that the Human Rights Association (IHD) leader was not out of danger after he was shot several times in the chest and leg by two gunmen in his central Ankara office on Tuesday.