Two journalists battered in Diyarbakır during news follow-up

* Photo: JinNews

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

The gendarmerie and special operations police officers prevented the women who wanted to visit the Sisê Cemetery in Lice in Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeastern province of Diyarbakır on the occasion of November 25 International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

As reported by JinNews yesterday, the police and gendarmerie set barricades at the entrance to the road leading to the cemetery, not allowing Free Women's Movement (TJA), Association of Assistance and Solidarity with Families Who Lost Their Relatives in the Cradle of Civilizations (MEBYA-DER), Peace Mothers Assembly members and Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Diyarbakır MP Remziye Tosun to enter the village.

Covering the incident in the meantime, JinNews reporter Derya Ren and Mezopotamya Agency (MA) reporter Eylem Akdağ were prevented from filming and their cameras were seized by the police.

Trying to take the camera from around Derya Ren's neck, the gendarmerie and police strangled her throat with the camera's strap. Eylem Akdağ was also pushed with a weapon by the police.

Journalists threatened with detention

With their cameras seized, the journalists started filming the incident with their phones. The police officers prevented them from filming the incident one more time, saying, "I know whom you will send these images to", and threatened Ren and Akdağ with taking them into custody.

Protesting this prevention and threats, HDP Diyabakır MP Remziye Tosun told the police that what they were doing was unlawful. Tosun also had bruises and swellings in her arms due to the battery. After Tosun took the seized cameras of journalists, the group left the area.

'We don't accept'

Afterwards, they made a press statement in Fis village. MEBYA-DER member Raziye Işıktaş protested their prevention from visiting the cemetery. Defining the action as "atrocity and insult", Işıktaş said:

"I told the soldier that I am a mother, too. He turned to me and said, 'Yes, you are a mother, but your child is not a child'. What kind of justice is that? I never accept this. We wanted to visit graves, but they even prevented us from this. I don't give my blessings to them."

CLICK - BİA Media Monitoring Reports

CLICK - bianet Media Monitoring Database

(KÖ/SD)