Leandro Albani
For nine months, Halise Aksoy has been in prison. Her crime, in the eyes of the Turkish authorities, is her son Agit Ipek’s decision to join the guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). In April 2020, a court in Diyarbakır (Amed) informed her that the remains of her son, who was killed by Turkish forces on 23 May 2017 in Tunceli (Dersim) province, were ready for repatriation. The Turkish judiciary decided that the bones of Agit (known by his nom-de-guerre Kemal Berxwedan) should be sent to his family in a cargo box, three years after his death. And that is how it was done.
It is an image that has outraged the Kurdish population of Turkey: Halise is sitting with her eyes fixed on the ground. She is holding a box wrapped in a plastic bag. Inside the box is her son Agit. But the indignation did not extend beyond the borders imposed on Kurdistan.
In April 2023, Halise was arrested as part of a massive police operation against Kurdish leaders, militants and activists. The Kurdish mother remains behind bars, despite her health problems. As if that were not enough, she is being tried on charges of belonging to a ‘terrorist organisation’ and ‘aiding and abetting terrorists’. In Turkey, these legal concepts – so fragile that they cannot stand up to any criminal theory – are systematically used by the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to persecute and repress opponents, especially those with links to the Kurdish political movement. Halise’s trial involved something that is commonplace in today’s Turkey: the prosecution presented a “state witness”, a tool used, according to Kurdish media, to “fabricate charges against some 800 people persecuted by the Turkish regime”.
Convicted for fighting
Halise has never been able to find peace, let alone justice, since she received her son’s remains.
In late June 2020, the Kurdish mother and her family filed a complaint with the Tunceli Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office to investigate what happened to her son. The prosecutor’s office refused to process the complaint, despite the support of the Human Rights Association (İHD), the Diyarbakır Bar Association, the Turkish Human Rights Foundation and the Association of Lawyers for Freedom. These organisations denounced the authorities of the Prosecutor’s Office for abuse of power.
In December of the same year, Turkish police raided Halise’s house in the Bağlar neighbourhood of Amed. Kurdish media reported that the operation was justified because the woman had received a visit from leaders of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), the main Kurdish political organisation in Turkey.
During the operation, the police broke down the door of the house and Halise – along with four other people who were with her – was forced face down on the floor by the officers. They were all beaten by the uniformed officers. The operation lasted for five hours. Halise and her guests were taken to a police station where they were interrogated for four hours before being released.
In early March 2022, the Turkish authorities began a series of raids on the homes of representatives of the Kurdish political movement. Halise’s house was raided again, but she was not present at the time. Later, her daughter reported that the police had searched her house and taken books and a letter sent to Halise by a political prisoner. Several representatives of the Kurdish political movement were arrested during the same operation.
Two months later, Halise’s house was raided again. As the woman was not present, the police asked her neighbours where she was. With the impunity that characterises them, the police also asked if it was true that Ipek’s remains had been sent by mail. All this despite the fact that there was photographic evidence of Halise holding the remains of her son.
In April 2023, two weeks before the first round of the presidential election on 14 May, police carried out raids in 21 provinces across the country. A total of 143 people were arrested, including journalists, politicians, lawyers, trade union leaders and artists. Among those arrested was Halise, who is still in prison.
Injustice everywhere
Halise is part of a long tradition of struggling Kurdish women, especially the mothers of militants and guerrillas killed and disappeared by the Turkish state. For decades, many women have come together in the Peace Mothers or Saturday Mothers groups, demanding that successive governments provide justice for those who have been disappeared and killed by the state. They too have been persecuted and imprisoned. But so far the deep state in Turkey has never been able to silence them.
Halise’s lawyer, Zeynep Karayılan, has denounced the numerous irregularities in her client’s trial. Speaking to ANF, Karayilan said there were “serious contradictions” in the testimony given by the “main witness”. “The court not only ignored these contradictions, but also refused to release my client, claiming that there was another secret witness besides the key witness who needed to be heard. Of course, this decision to keep her in prison has no legal basis,” the lawyer criticised.
Karayilan warned that since the beginning of the trial, “Halise Aksoy has been treated as an enemy” and that the country’s Code of Criminal Procedure has been “de facto discarded”. The lawyer said: “There are three witness statements in the file and all three are irrelevant. None of the statements corroborate each other. Moreover, the indictment also included the situation of her son, whose bones were sent by mail. This alone shows that the case against Halise Aksoy is unreasonable.”
Karayilan warned that the Kurdish mother “has been in prison for nine months and is a chronic sufferer of diabetes and high blood pressure. She also suffers from many other illnesses. She has been hospitalised several times during her detention. She had several eye surgeries prior to her detention and also has a stomach disorder. When we last spoke, she said her symptoms had worsened.”
In June last year, journalist Beritan Canözer of the JinNews news agency was released after three months in prison. She was also accused of belonging to a terrorist organisation. Upon her release, Beritan said: “Journalism is not a crime. We will continue with the pen in our hand. Our friends who remain in prison will continue to be defended in our news. They are all imprisoned now, illegally,” she said. The journalist added: “I would like to mention in particular Halise Aksoy who, despite her many health problems and regardless of her age, remains in prison.”
No matter how many bars are raised before Halise Aksoy’s eyes, her eyes and body will continue to fly free, with the memory of her son Agit protected in the clenched fists of a Kurdish mother who deserves only freedom.
*Leandro Albani is an Argentinean journalist with a specialisation in the Middle East and Maghreb. He is the author of several books, among them Revolution in Kurdistan (2014) and ISIS: The Army of Terror (2016).
