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The investigation launched into the attack on Kurdish workers in Sakarya province has been completed. The prosecutor's office has given a decision of non-prosecution on charge of "inciting the public to enmity and hatred." Lawyers have announced that they will appeal against the decision.
Leaving Turkey's southeastern province of Mardin to work in Sakarya, the workers were attacked by the employers and villagers on September 4.
'Discrimination, clearly and obviously'
Lawyers Leyla Kaya, Kemal Erdem, Nurullah Öner from the Mardin Bar Association and former Sakarya Bar Association Chair Zafer Kazan will appeal against the decision. Meeting the officials from Kocaeli Prosecutor's Office with the other lawyers today (December 25), Kazan has made a statement about the issue and said that the attack was clearly discrimination:
"As soon as the issue came up, the prosecutor's office opened the [investigation] file. Even though the file was opened, the administrative authorities, especially the governor's office, denied it. The necessary was not done quickly. During the attack, Kurdish workers were told, 'Here is not like Mardin, it is Sakarya.' This has only one name: Discrimination.
"If they had been workers from Düzce, Ordu or Trabzon provinces, they could not have said, 'Here is not like Trabzon.' But they can say it quite easily when it is a Kurdish worker from Mardin. This is clearly and obviously discrimination, but a decision of non-prosecution has been given despite this discrimination. We will appeal against it."
CLICK - 'The moment when they attacked us still haunts me'
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. While the two were detained, they were released shortly afterwards. |
(EMK/SD)
