Your cart is currently empty!
Shopkeeper who said ‘This is Kurdistan’ released
Cemil Taşkesen has been released. The shopkeeper from Siirt was arrested on Friday morning after he told IYI party chair “This is Kurdistan”. A video of the encounter had gone viral. During the interrogation he was asked who gave him the order to say that.
After massive protests, shopkeeper Cemil Taşkesen from Siirt arrested for saying “This is Kurdistan” was released. Cemil Taşkesen had said that to Meral Akşener, chair of the IYI party who had visited the shop. The IYI party is a split of the ultra-nationalist MHP. Akşener had visited shops in the district town of Kurtalan, including that of Taşkesen. During the conversation, Taşkesen criticized the state’s policy of denial in Turkey, saying: “Our language is denied, our identity is denied, Kurdistan is denied. We are against it. You are currently in Kurdistan, but unfortunately this Kurdistan is denied in parliament.”
After a video of the conversation went viral on social media, police officers on Friday morning stormed the apartment of Taşkesen and arrested him. The arrest sparked indignation. HDP politicians called for his release and the Amed Bar Association made it clear that the statement on Kurdistan is not a criminal offense and is covered by freedom of expression. The Kurdish politician Saliha Aydeniz (DBP) commented on the procedure with the words: “This is the best proof that Kurdistan is a colony.”
In the evening, Taşkesen was brought to the public prosecutor’s office and then released. During the interrogation he was asked whether he wanted Turkey’s separation, had reservations about the constitutional order and regularly followed the media of the “terrorist organization PKK / KCK”. The authorities wanted to know why he had used the word Kurdistan, what he meant by this term, whether he had planned the statement in advance and from whom he had received the order and when.