House raids and detentions in Amed

The Turkish regime’s persecution authorities continue to turn up the repression screw against the Kurdish part of the population. In Amed (tr. Diyarbakır), at least six people were detained on Friday during raids by police anti-terror units at the behest of the chief public prosecutor’s office. The people concerned are local politician Halide Türkoğlu, who is a member of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) party council, as well as İlknur Saymak, Helen Ölçen, Nurten Bingöl, Rojhat Karakoç and Mehmet Faruk. They are all being held at Diyarbakır police headquarters. What they are accused of is not yet known. It is assumed that they are the usual terrorist suspects.

More people were detained outside the city as part of the same investigation. Murat Önder, a member of the board of the HDP provincial association of Amed, was taken into custody in Edirne, western Turkey. Activist Erol Çiftçi was arrested by the police in Ankara. Both men are to be transferred to Amed later today. The investigation has been classified in a rush. Due to a corresponding secrecy order, the legal counsel of the detainees has no access to the file. The measure is a common method used by the Turkish judiciary to torpedo the defence.

In the course of the police terror in Amed, the flat of Halise Aksoy was also raided. Although she was not present, according to her daughter, the premises were nevertheless searched and ransacked. In addition, some books and a letter addressed to Aksoy from a prison were reportedly confiscated. Before the officers left the flat, questions such as “Does Halise Aksoy live alone?”, “Does she receive visitors and if so, from whom?” and “Does Halise Aksoy read these books?” were allegedly asked.

Halise Aksoy is the mother of Agit Ipek, a guerrilla fighter who died fighting the Turkish army in Dersim in 2017. Her name was burned into the memory of Kurdish society two years ago when the remains of her son were handed over to her in a box and by post – sent by a Turkish prosecutor. Since then, the elderly woman has been the victim of arbitrary police violence several times. During a raid at the end of 2020, the Kurdish woman was mistreated by Turkish police officers. Four members of the executive council of the HDP, who were guests of Aksoy at the time, were also victims of police violence, some of it severe. One person suffered a skull fracture during the assault.