Grief and rage erupted on the streets of Turkey 's largest city after a 15-year-old boy struck in the head by a tear gas canister died Tuesday morning in a hospital . Much of the anger was focused on Turkey 's embattled prime minister , Recep Tayyip Erdogan . A crowd chanted `` fascist government , Erdogan killer , '' as Berkin Elvan 's coffin was carried through the streets of the working-class Istanbul neighborhood his family calls home . Some bystanders wept in the freezing , pouring rain . President Abdullah Gul spoke with the boy 's father Monday and was saddened by Tuesday 's news , according to the semiofficial Anadolu news agency . `` I extend my condolences to his family . I share their pain , '' he said . Elvan was only 14 when he was critically wounded last summer , at the height of a wave of anti-government protests that erupted across Istanbul and other Turkish cities . His parents said he left home on the morning of June 16 , 2013 , to buy a loaf of bread . Less than 15 minutes later , neighbors arrived , telling them their son had been wounded . The boy suffered blunt trauma to the head . According to a report by Human Rights Watch , an eyewitness said the child was hit by a police tear gas canister . For the next nine months , Elvan lay in a hospital bed in a coma . When Elvan 's mother attempted to make a public statement about her son 's ordeal in central Istanbul in July 2013 , CNN journalists witnessed and filmed Turkish riot police hitting demonstrators with pepper spray and beating one man with a club in an apparent effort to break up the demonstration . More recently , riot police used tear gas to disperse demonstrators holding a vigil outside the hospital where Elvan was being treated . Members of the family said the boy wasted away to a weight of 16 kilograms ( about 35 pounds ) during his nine-month-long coma . `` The government has not accepted any responsibility and they have not brought the police who were responsible for this to justice , '' said Ali Kan , one of the men who attended the funeral procession . News of Elvan 's death sparked a fresh round of protests in other parts of Istanbul , as well as in the capital Ankara , where riot police reportedly intervened using tear gas . Istanbul police denied using tear gas to disperse crowds that gathered Tuesday at the hospital where Elvan died , Anadolu reported . See photos from the protests on CNN iReport . Political passions are running high in Turkey . In less than three weeks , the country is expected to go to the polls in nationwide elections . Though voters will be electing town and city mayors in a series of municipal elections , the contest is widely seen as a referendum on Turkey 's long-serving prime minister . Erdogan has been on the political defensive since December , when police detained dozens of people close to his government as part of a wide-ranging corruption probe . In subsequent weeks , the prime minister dismissed thousands of police commanders , as well as the prosecutors leading the investigation . He has also mounted a media offensive against his former political ally , the powerful Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen , who lives in self-imposed exile in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania . Erdogan has repeatedly accused Gulen and his supporters of establishing a `` parallel state '' within the Turkish police and judiciary aimed at toppling his democratically-elected government . As the corruption probe ground to a halt , anonymous critics began publishing a series of audio recordings online that appear to be wiretaps of Erdogan 's telephone conversations . Erdogan has denounced some of the recordings , calling them `` immorally edited material . '' But the prime minister has also confirmed the authenticity of at least one recording , in which he is overheard instructing the executive of a Turkish TV channel to censor the live broadcast of a rival politician 's speech in parliament . On Tuesday night , Elvan 's body lay in a `` cemevi , '' the house of worship of the Alevi religious sect to which he belongs . The boy is expected to be buried following a funeral service on Wednesday . In the meantime , activists have called for symbolic funeral protests to be held in other cities across Turkey . More than 100 Turkish riot police walled off the center of Istanbul 's busy Taksim Square on Tuesday evening , in a clear effort to prevent demonstrators from gathering in the heart of the city .
Turkey 's president says he shares the family 's pain , news agency reports . Berkin Elvan was hit in the head by a tear gas canister last summer . He was in a coma in the hospital for nine months . His family wants the government to take responsibility .