DAKAP to sue the police over violence at March 8 demo in Amed

“Women are dangerous! There is no other explanation for the massive police presence at the rally on International Women’s Struggle Day in Amed.” This is the conclusion of activist Ruken Yılmaz from the Dicle-Amed Women’s Platform (DAKAP). She was there when the 8 March demonstration in Amed (tr. Diyarbakır) ran under the motto “Change together – now is the time for women”, and hundreds of participants were crammed into undignified conditions in the run-up. A massive contingent of riot police and water cannons kept the women away from the rally site at three checkpoints set up in the vicinity of the railway station district, in addition to several sealed-off access roads. The demonstrators – mainly the blocs of peace mothers, trade unions and HDP women – were surrounded and detained by the police for up to three hours, and there was inappropriate police violence with personal checks “up to the vest and into the shoes” – at temperatures of around 5 degrees.

Yılmaz: This will have legal repercussions

“This will have legal repercussions. We consider all these so-called measures to be clearly illegal and will sue the Diyarbakır police,” Yılmaz said at a press conference convened by DAKAP. The platform consists of the Kurdish Women’s Movement TJA, the HDP Young Women’s Council, the Council of Progressive Women, the Rosa Women’s Association, the Women’s Academy and the March 8 Alliance, among others. DAKAP’s complaint will be directed against the entire action of the security forces, specifically against the exclusion of hundreds of women from the rally and against their encirclement, violence and arrests.

Nine detained on flimsy charges

The protesters were not guilty of anything but were discriminated against as “the usual suspects” via loudspeaker announcements, Yılmaz continued. Among the women affected were the female chairpersons of the HDP’s district and provincial associations, which are run on the basis of gender parity, as well as MP Ayşe Acar Başaran. At least nine women were detained on flimsy charges, including Safiye Akdağ, a TJA activist who was the moderator at the rally. She had barely left the stage when she was taken away and brought to the anti-terror department. The reason given was that she had read out messages from various organisations on the occasion of 8 March.

Displeasure of the patriarchal mentality

“The patriarchal mentality of the AKP and MHP regimes demonstrated once again their displeasure with the emerging awareness of women’s freedom,” Ruken Yılmaz stated. She said that male-dominated fascism had reached a new peak in the celebration of International Women’s Struggle Day. “With the result that women faced unprecedented ruthlessness and brutality. We will not tolerate these special practices of the Diyarbakır police. They cannot influence our resistance anyway,” Ruken Yılmaz concluded.