Racists target young Kurdish man in Ankara

A racist attack was carried out on a young Kurd named Volkan Temel, who lives in the neighbourhood of Türközü in Mamak, by D.G., S.G. and another person whose identity remained unknown.

It was stated by family members that it was the second attack against them. The family has been living in the same neighbourhood for a long time.

‘Dirty Kurdish, this will be the grave for Kurds’

Speaking about the racist attack, one of the family members, Mizgin Temel, said that three people attacked her brother Volkan saying “This is Türközü, it will be the grave for Kurds. Dirty Kurds, we don’t want you here.” She added that they attacked her brother with knives and sticks.

Stating that the same people attempted to attack them about a year ago, Temel added: “We are from Şırnak. They have been making racist statements against us for a year and they want us to move from here. They attack us by calling us ‘dirty Kurds’. My brother is only 17 years old, and while he was leaving the house on Saturday evening, they attacked him.

Police ignore family complaint

Stating that her brother had breathing difficulties after the attack, Temel said: “He suffered very serious wounds on his face. He’s having trouble breathing right now. We went to the hospital, got a report of assault and filed a complaint.”

Temel said that no arrests were made against the attackers and explained what happened at the police station: “We received our report of the assault and went to the police station to file a complaint. But the attackers were not even taken into custody. The police say to us, ‘Get out of here, we can’t throw you in prison but we can fine you’. How can you call this justice?”