Greenpeace Activists Taken in Custody During PM's Meeting

Three Greenpeace activists were taken into police custody in the course of a meeting of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Mersin on 2 June.

PM Erdoğan visited the city on the eastern tip of the Mediterranean coast as part of his campaign in the run up to the parliamentary elections on 12 June. During his speech, Saliha Öztürk (56), Perihan Pulat (69) and Hazal Akduran (20) unrolled three banners reading "Mersin does not want nuclear power".

The activists were taken into police custody by force. At around 1.00 am on Friday morning (3 June) they were released.

"You will be in trouble if you talk to the press"

20-year-old university student Hazal Akduran said in a statement made to bianet that they encountered negative reactions by women in the audience of the meeting after they had posted the banners. She said that the police initially took them to the anti-terror branch.

Akduran summarized, "As soon as I had posted the banner, a plainclothes police officer came and intervened against the banner. At the same time, women who attended the meeting intervened against me. They were about to lynch me. (...)"

"The other policemen noticed the commotion and came to the scene. They brought me to the police car. They got angry when I shouted 'Mersin does not want nuclear power'. They pulled my hair and twisted my arm on the way. They squeezed my head on the police car and searched me."

"The policemen threatened me that I would get into trouble in case I talked to the press", Akduran recalled.

"Don't know why they took me tot he anti-terror branch"

"They took me to the anti-terror branch. I assume they had not quite understood what I did. (...) They treated me better there".

After that, Akduran was taken to the Republic Police Station where she met the two other Greenpeace activists and lawyer Semra Kabasakal. Akduran had her finger prints taken and underwent an examination at the forensic medicine department. She was released subsequently.

"Policemen at the police station congratulated us"

Activist Saliha Öztürk also encountered negative reactions of the women at the meeting after she had posted her banner. She was taken to the police car by plainclothes police officers and eventually taken to the Republic Police Station. Lawyer Kabasakal arrived at the police station shortly after. Apparently, two of the policemen congratulated the Greenpeace activists and appreciated their action against nuclear power.

"I would have felt guilty if I had not done this protest"

Öztürk explained his reasons for the protest as follows: "I posted the banner against nuclear power during the meeting of the prime minister because I do not want nuclear power in Mersin. I have two grand-children and I want them to live in a cleaner world".

"I would have felt guilty if I had not done this protest action. I will continue my struggle against nuclear power". (EKN/VK)

Picture: Greenpeace.