On August 7, millions of people gathered at a meeting venue in Istanbul’s Yenikapi area for a joint demonstration called the “Democracy and Martyrs Rally” to protest the July 15 coup attempt.
The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), the country’s third biggest party, was not allowed to attend.
William Reed, of the Clarion Project (CP) reported that at the rally, the leaders of the three Turkish political parties in Turkey’s parliament – the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the opposition parties, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) – took the stage upon a call made by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“Yet, as millions of Turks allegedly “stood for democracy,” Kurdish mothers were being tortured by Turkish police. In fact, many Kurds across Turkey are almost daily exposed to murders, arbitrary arrests, lynching attempts or torture, “Reed said.
“The day of the rally, the Peace Mothers Assembly of Amed (Diyarbakir) went to visit the Peace Mothers Assembly of Siirt, “Reed stated. “The Peace Mothers Assembly is a Kurdish women’s initiative which began in 1996 with the stated aim of “resolving the Kurdish issue through peaceful means.”
“On the way back from the visit, they were sexually torture by police officers. Nezahat Teke and Havva Kiran, members of the Peace Mothers Assembly of Amed, reported what happened to them in a press conference, “Reed continued.
“The police stopped our car with guns in their hands,” Teke said. “Then, they directed their guns at us. They made us get out of the car. Two female police officers tried to drag us to a prefabricated [structure]. Havva told them not to drag her because she was out of breath. They said, ‘You don’t run out of breath when you take to the streets, but you get tried now that I am dragging you?’
“As they took us to the prefabricated [structure], they made the driver go down on his knees on a pavement. They were shouting at him and telling him not to raise his head and to bow down. Female police officers forcibly undressed and frisked us. They stripped us bare-naked. But even that was not enough. They harassed us and told us to sit down and stand up repeatedly. We are their mothers’ age but they did unacceptable things to us.”
“They made us wait without water for hours,” Teke continued. “We, the peace mothers, have requested peace for years. We have not had any other slogan or request. Do they also consider this a crime?”
“If there is a coup, we are against the coup, as well. We are against killings but we are also against such unlawfulness. We take to the streets so that no one will die [due to the war]. We are against even their deaths. But what do they do? They strip us naked and harass us. I later noticed that my 200 liras [$65] were not in my wallet. This is not an issue of money, but this shows their ugliness.”
Reed reported that the Peace Mothers are genuinely devoted to speaking what they call “the language of peace” and they live by their principles. Every chance they get, they call for a ceasefire between the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) and the Turkish military and a return to peace talks. They are completely non-violent and their activism essentially aims to end the war in Turkey and Kurdistan.
In response, they are labeled as “terrorists,” harassed, tortured and jailed.
Reed said, “The problem is that the Peace Mothers and their children want to remain Kurds and refuse to be slaughtered. To the Turks, however, if only those Kurds were willing to be led to slaughterhouses like sheep, or just abandon their Kurdish identity silently and stop requesting national rights, then the Turks would probably not call them “terrorists” and would not have to kill them.”
“Apparently, the Turkish dehumanization of Kurds knows no boundaries. And this seems to be the main reason why thousands of people have lost their lives in the war in Kurdistan.”