AKP’s Zengin: I don’t say there is no strip search at all

* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA)

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Amid ongoing debates on strip search in detention and prisons in Turkey, ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Tokat MP and Parliamentary Group Deputy Chair Özlem Zengin has made a new statement and said, "I do not say that there is no such search in Turkey at all. If there is such an issue, then, take the trouble to lodge a complaint about this."

In a previous statement about the issue, Zengin accused women of "complaining late," saying that "an honorable and moral woman would not wait for a year" to file a complaint about strip search.

Speaking during a program at Haber Global news channel, Özlem Zengin has, this time, said, "There are applications to the Constitutional Court. The fact that there is such a practice does not mean that it is a subject of human rights violation. I do not say that there is no such search in Turkey at all. If there is such an issue, then, take the trouble to lodge a complaint about this. I would expect all these women to file a complaint, but they do not. I think that I was treated unfairly about this issue."

'Melih Bulu is our friend'

Özlem Zengin has also talked about the appointment of Prof. Melih Bulu as a rector to Boğaziçi University by President and AKP Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the ensuing protests of students and academics.

"I am very closely acquainted with Melih Bulu. He is our friend, he is our close friend. We worked at the AK Party. We sat and worked on the same table for over six years. I know him quite closely," she has said, adding:

"And this incident is a grave injustice to Mr. Bulu. He also made an application as it was legally possible. It is not life Boğaziçi having its own rules... Students can object, but if politics is involved there... If there is an influx there from terrorist organizations... They wanted to make something big out of it. There is nothing against the regulations or the law."

What happened?

Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Kocaeli MP and Parliamentary Human Rights Investigation Commission member Dr. Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu made a statement and said that there is strip search in Turkey's prisons. After he raised the issue, the ruling party politicians made statements dismissing the allegations. In response to these dismissals, Gergerlioğlu said that he was expecting an apology for these statements.

Dismissing the allegations and criticisms about "strip search" in Turkey's prisons, ruling AKP's Parliamentary Group Deputy Chair and Tokat MP Özlem Zengin stated, "An honorable and moral woman would not wait for a year to announce it." She also said later, "These people are now having a baby upon instruction, there are women with babies in prison."

While these remarks sparked criticism on Twitter, lawyer Mert Yaşar was also among the ones who protested. Making a statement on February 22, the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office announced that an ex officio investigation was launched against Yaşar about the incident. The Security Branch teams of the İstanbul Security Directorate took the lawyer into custody from his house in Eyüpsultan district in İstanbul and searched his house on February 23. He was then arrested for "insulting the President". (AÖ/SD)