“Intrusive” and “brutal”
Police in Istanbul arrest masses of Kurds
March 18, 2024, 9:50 a.m
Ankara has been taking action against Kurds for many years. They are bombed in Iraq and Syria and discriminated against and persecuted in Turkey. There are many arrests during New Year’s celebrations in Istanbul. Those affected – including several journalists – complain about harassment.
Turkish police have arrested around 50 people, including an AFP journalist, during Kurdish New Year celebrations in Istanbul. Video journalist Eylul Yasar was about to film the New Year celebrations on Sunday when she was arrested at a checkpoint, according to eyewitnesses. She was handcuffed and held in a police van with 14 other people for six hours before being released.
Yasar said that before the arrest, police officers subjected her to an “intrusive” and “brutal” strip search. Officials also insulted her and the other people in the van and called her “pig feces, terrorists and traitors.” Two journalists from the Bianet news website who filmed the arrests said they were beaten and thrown to the ground by police. A journalist from the Italian “Radio Radicale” spoke on X of over 100 arrests.
The AFP news agency said it regretted the arrest of “our journalist Eylul Yasar, who was just doing her job.” The Turkey representative of the organization Reporters Without Borders, Erol Önderoglu, also criticized that the police had “prevented Yasar from doing her job” with the “arbitrary arrest.”
According to Önderoglu, the police arrested a total of around 50 participants in the New Year celebrations, which usually include traditional dances and a bonfire. According to an AFP photographer, the fire was called off after the police operation. Many Kurds, who make up around a fifth of Turkey’s 85 million people, complain of significant discrimination in everyday life.