Torture exists
As the number of people resisting AKP tyranny grows by the day, the level of police violence against protestors is also escalating. For the past ten days, citizens have been subjected to severe human rights violations and torture. Even writing about it hurts: they reportedly kicked female students between the legs, causing bleeding! Once again, we see that it is impossible to discuss the AKP’s violence policies separately from violence against women.
CHP MP Sezgin Tanrıkulu shared on social media the case of an 18-year-old student whose leg was broken under torture and who was brought before the Criminal Court of Peace despite a medical report indicating the need for emergency surgery. “What did I do?” she screamed as she was arrested. Her lawyers submitted petitions stating that the young woman’s leg was broken and she could not be sent to prison in that condition. But it fell on deaf ears. It was impossible to even meet with the duty prosecutor.
University students who were tortured and detained for participating in a peaceful protest — peaceful, a concept the AKP clearly does not understand — are now being arrested. The inhumane treatment they suffered in custody has been made public by their lawyers and MPs.
Three days ago, footage emerged from the police attack in Saraçhane on the night of 23 March, which left dozens injured. In those images, captured by photojournalist Kemal Aslan, protestors are clearly being tortured in the middle of the street. A police officer continues spraying gas at close range at someone shouting “I can’t breathe!” and fires rubber bullets into the eyes of people trapped between barriers. They are openly attempting to harm people. Has the AKP’s Minister of Justice, who claims there is “no tolerance for torture in Turkey,” watched that footage? He surely knows that torture crimes have no statute of limitations and that prosecutors are required to launch investigations ex officio when they learn a torture crime has been committed. Will the Minister of AKP Justice say a single word about torture?
STRIP SEARCH
From the statements of tortured students: “I was detained with reverse handcuffs. During detention, I remained handcuffed for over eight hours on the bus and at the hospital. I want to file a complaint about this. Two male police officers used disproportionate force on me during the arrest — I want to file a separate complaint against them. I witnessed other people also being subjected to violent intervention by riot police. A female officer with blonde hair, known as the ‘commissioner,’ conducted a strip search. I could identify her if I saw her again. She was responsible for the search. We were forced to remove our underwear, and my breasts were touched. I request her identification via security cameras if possible. I want to file a complaint against this officer.”
MALE POLICE OFFICER TOUCHED MY BREASTS
“I was subjected to very harsh treatment during my arrest. I was dragged by my hair and pulled along the ground. As I was being handcuffed and taken away, a male officer said, ‘I won’t beat you, okay?’ and took me behind the ambulance. He was bearded, moustached, tall (around 1.85–1.90 m), with light eyes. He touched my breasts, saying, ‘So, you’ve got boobs, huh?’ At that moment, I wet myself. My clothes are still soaked with urine. Then a female officer came. She intervened, saying to the male officer, ‘Okay, that’s enough.’
“Then a veiled female officer in a red vest handcuffed me behind my back and forced me to the ground. The male officer pressed his foot on my head. The medical report states swelling and bruising on the left side of my head. A female officer took me into the police van and insulted me, calling me a ‘bitch.’
“While I waited in the van in reverse handcuffs, I asked for them to be loosened because they were too tight. When a supervisor from the security branch came to check, he said, ‘Oh, what have they done to your hand?’ They searched me for a sharp object but couldn’t find anything. In the ambulance, the handcuffs were removed. Due to the swelling and bruising, I wasn’t re-handcuffed before being put back into the van. Before entering the holding cell, I told a female officer I had been harassed. She mockingly replied, ‘Hmm, you were harassed, huh?’
“The next evening, we were taken to Bakırköy Sadi Konuk Hospital in a van with 4–5 female officers. I told them about the harassment, thinking they might help. But they mocked me: ‘Don’t even go there. Why would they do that to you with all those women around?’ Two female officers with black hair came at me especially aggressively. The others also threatened me, saying, ‘Don’t go down that road.’
“I wasn’t allowed to contact my family and was left in my urine-soaked clothes for nearly 24 hours. I want to file complaints against all the individuals I’ve mentioned.”
This is how young people resist. For ten days, the political power has pulled every lever it can — but the waves of detentions and arrests aimed at citizens exercising their democratic rights in the streets are not working. RTÜK’s fines on channels that covered the Saraçhane protests are not working either. Voices continue to rise from all corners of the country, protests echo from every square. Even if the political power blocks its ears, the world has heard: We are not afraid, you cannot silence us, we will keep fighting!
Recently, quotes from Bertolt Brecht — one of the most influential poets and playwrights of the 20th century — have become increasingly popular. I was about to end this article with one of his quotes, but then remembered the headline from yesterday’s edition of our newspaper. A sentence that best captures the current moment: Turkey is Against Him!
Note: This article is translated from the original Turkish version titled İşkence var, published in BirGün newspaper on March 29, 2025.
