ANKARA - Before the first hearing of the trial brought against 33 women on the grounds that they participated in the Istanbul Convention protest, the police attacked the women who wanted to make a press release in front of the courthouse with pepper gas. While many people were detained, journalists who wanted to take footage were battered and not allowed to footage.

 

The hearing of the trial brought against 33 women who protested will be held at the 28th Criminal Court of First Instance. Before the hearing, Ankara Women's Platform wanted to make a press release in front of the Courthouse. While the A and B gates of the Courthouse were closed with barricades before the statement, the press release that the women wanted to make was not allowed on the grounds of "pandemics". Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Diyarbakır MP Semra Güzel, Ankara MP Filiz Kerestecioğlu and Istanbul MP Züleyha Gülüm supported the women to follow the case. 

 

Attack on journalists

 

While the police attacked the women, who held the banner "The Istanbul Convention is ours, it cannot be prosecuted" in front of the courthouse close to the time of the hearing, the police were prevented from taking pictures of the journalists. The phone of our reporter Dilan Babat, who took a video from the phone, was confiscated. Mezopotamya Agency (MA) reporter Hakan Yalçın was battered with cosh by the police. It was remarkable that the police said, "The police tell you to stay away, you don't go away, then you say there is police violence. You are all liars, you are immoral," when the journalists were battered. The women, who were removed from the courthouse, reacted to the situation with slogan as "We are not afraid, we are not silent, we do not obey".

 

About 20 people were detained

 

The women, walking to Sıhhiye Avenue in front of the courthouse, reacted to the police violence and said: "Here, women are on trial because they say that the Istanbul Convention should enforce. It is not us women who are on trial, it is male judiciary. We women will enforce the convention." After the women's words, the police attacked again with tear gas. About 20 people were detained in the attack. Police told to HDP Diyarbakır MP Semra Güzel, who reacting the attack, as "shut up" and taken Semra and her companions away from the area.

 

Among those detained, whose names have been learned, are as follows: Buse Üçer, Aysun Gençtanır, Sevinç Hocaoğulları, Gülçin Polat, Sibel Göktaş, Esma Çağlak, İlay Kadiroğlu and Sıla Yılmaz.

 

‘33 women were detained after being subjected to state violence’

 

The statement made by the women, which was not allowed by the police, is as follows: "We carried out actions that we gave voice to all over Turkey at the same time against the attack on the Convention. One of action was in Ankara College Square on August 12, 2020, with the call of the Ankara Women's Platform, with the words 'Istanbul Convention Keeps Alive'. As women who took to the streets to defend our right to life, we were subjected to state violence; 33 women were subjected to state violence and detained. In the lawsuit filed against the women defending the convention with the charge of 'opposing the Law No. 2911 on demonstrations and marches', prison sentences of one year six months to three years are demanded. This case was opened to all women and LGBTI+ individuals who defended the Convention. One side of this case is the one-man power, which is exposed a little more every day that it turns into a criminal gang, and the other side is everyone who is on the side of life and fighting against male violence."