NEWS CENTER -  Alma from the Peoples' Caravan was subjected to an attempted rape while being detained for deportation in Turkey.

 

Alma from the Peoples' Caravan announced at a press conference she organized with other activists from the Caravan in Frankfurt that she was subjected to an attempted rape while being detained for deportation in Turkey. 

 

Recalling that she was detained along with other activists on January 28, Alma described her experiences as follows: 

 

“On 30th of January, I was taken into custody by the Turkish professor of state alongside 28 other activists from the People's caravan. We were on a humanitarian mission with the goal to reach Kobane and spread awareness about the ongoing attacks on the Rojava revolution, the Turkish state arrested us in the city Suruc, only a couple miles away from Kobane, as has already been published in various statements, several activists experienced torture and sexual violence during their time in prison, including myself, shortly before a deportation to Germany, I was sexually assaulted by the prison guards. 

 

I am not making the statement for myself individually, because the experience I made are not individual either. For decades, this state has used sexual violence against political prisoners, especially female political prisoners. I also know that my experience are only a fraction of what political prisoners are facing every day behind the walls of the Turkish prisons in Turkey, 1000s of democratic activists, revolutionaries and media journalists are currently in prison, including many women who are also subjected to rape and sexual violence on a daily basis. 

 

Turkish Fascism is trying, by all means, to maintain its patriarchal system and the women who take to the streets after femicides, the women who attack the fascist family policies of the state and who defend the women's revolution in Rojava with all means are a particular threat to the system. But we also know that women have always been stronger than the violence and torture inflicted upon them, we see how women in Turkey and northern Kurdistan are resisting this violence, and how neither their struggle nor their will can be broken by it. The People's caravan was a mission to defend the women's revolution in Rojava. This revolution is still under attack every day by the barbarous and fascist gangs of HTS ISIS and the Turkish state as women. It is now more than ever a time to defend this revolution and to carry out the voices of all the women that are currently fighting in Rojava to the streets in Europe and all over the world.”