14-YEAR-OLD KURDISH CHILD WORKER
‘The moment when they attacked us still haunts me’
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"We are six brothers and sisters. We have to work in the summer to earn money for our education. What can I say? I had dreams when I got there. I was going to earn money, I would have money for the school, but it did not happen. The moment when they attacked us is still haunting me. I have just heard that they have been released. I am afraid that they will also come here and attack us. I cannot sleep..."
It is Tuğba Demir who is speaking. She is a Kurdish child worker. She is only 14 years old. She says that she cannot sleep at night and her view on life and society of Turkey has completely changed.
Tuğba Demir is also one of the 16 agricultural workers who left their hometown in Turkey's southeastern province of Mardin to work in the western provicne of Sakarya and were targeted in a racist attack there.
Demir shares with bianet what happened in Sakarya:
"At the moment of the attack, we went on the roof of a house to escape. I cannot forget that moment. I was so scared that I thought they were going to kill us. They were saying that they would set our house on fire and behead us. I still hear those voices at night. I cannot sleep.
"We were in Sakarya for 20 days. I spent 17 of those 20 days working. I used to work from 7 in the morning till 7 in the evening. We also experienced bad things while working, but it was not as bad as this last one.
"Everyone handles oneself after a certain age. I went there for work so that I could support my family. But I will never go to Sakarya ever again. We would not have gone there in the first place if we had known that something like that would happen. I would earn pocket money for the school, but now I cannot sleep at night. I am scared that they will come and attack us again.
'I want to defend people's rights'
"You know... They used to say that there is a Kurdish-Turkish unity. It was what I thought. But I understood in Sakarya that there was no such thing. I thought we were all brothers and sisters, but when we went there, I saw how much they contempt us. Everything has changed for me now.
"I am thinking of going to the university. If I can raise money for the school expenses, I will study. I used to want to be a teacher, but -after this incident- I want to be a lawyer and defend people's rights.
'We narrowly escaped'
"No one supported us. Even the Governor's Office denied the incident. But we were attacked.
"I am now in my own village. I am in Mardin, but I am still very scared. I have been psychologically affected a lot. We even found the minibus that we got on at the moment of incident by chance. If there had not been that minibus, we would be dead now. We narrowly escaped death.
"The ones who attacked us have been released? Is it true? If yes, then our lives are in danger. I am a complainant against them.
"What can I say, sis? People should not forget this ever. They laid a hand on a woman there, she was my cousin. She is fine now, but it could have been worse. I want people to defend our rights."
Long list of hate attacks in Sakarya* On December 16, 2018, Kurdish-speaking father Kadir Sakçı and Burhan Sakçı (16) were intercepted by a group in Hendek, Sakarya and they were asked, "Are you Kurdish?" When they answered in the affirmative, the group beat father Kadir Sakçı (43) to death. Having survived the attack with serious injuries, the son was treated in hospital for a long time. The lawsuit filed against Hikmet Usta, one of the assaulters, and Recep İş, who helped him to escape, was finalized on December 6, 2019. The Sakarya 1st Heavy Penal Court ruled that Usta should be sentenced to life imprisonment for "murder", to 15 years in prison for "severe injury" and to 1 year, 6 months for "possession of weapons." Recep Eş was also sentenced to 5 months for helping him escape. * Şirin Tosun (19) went from Turkey's southeastern province of Diyarbakır to Paralı village in Karasu district in summer 2019. She was going to work there as a seasonal agricultural worker with her siblings. On August 21, she and a friend spoke Kurdish with a group of people in a vehicle with a license plate of Diyarbakır. They were subjected to the armed attack of six people who saw this. The assaulters opened fire on Tosun and her friend M.Z., asking them "why they were speaking Kurdish." Tosun was shot in the head. M.Z. managed to survive the attack without any wounds. M.Z. asked for help and ambulances came to the scene of the incident. Struggling for her life for 51 days, Tosun lost her life on October 13. An investigation was launched into the incident by the Sakarya Chief Public Prosecutor's Office. Two people were arrested while four of the assaulters were released. The trial of the defendants is still ongoing. * In October 2018, a racist attack was carried out on Diyarbakır-based Amedspor football club. Before a match between Sakaryaspor and Amedspor, videos featuring military operations were screened in the stadium and after the match ended, Sakaryaspor fans attacked the players on the pitch and dressing room. Compiled from Mezopotamya Agency |
What happened?A racist attack was carried out on Kurdish agricultural workers in Sakarya on September 4, 2020. The workers went there from the southeastern province of Mardin. After the Mezopotamya Agency reported on the incident, the attack sparked a public outrage. In a statement about the incident, the Governor's Office of Sakarya denied the attack and alleged that the footage in question was from a former attack in Kocaeli. Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chair Prof. Mithat Sancar called the attacked workers and said that they were closely monitoring the issue. The HDP also said that it would bring the issue into the Parliamentary agenda. While the workers left Sakarya for their hometown in Mazıdağı, Mardin, the village was quarantined after they arrived there. The Chief Public Prosecutor's Office of Kocaeli issued a detention warrant for two people over this racist attack. Security forces started working to catch the suspects. |
(EMK/SD)