A detainee, arrested on 28 April as part of Turkey’s pre-election mass investigation in Turkey’s Kurdish-majority Diyarbakır (Amed), has shared a message of defiance from her prison cell directed at the Turkish government.
“I was lacking in awareness, I will read books in prison and become more trouble for them.”
The detainee, Halise Aksoy, initially gained public attention when the bones of her late son, Agit İpek, were sent to her three years after his death, in an unexpected package from a Turkish court.
İpek was killed in action as a young guerrilla fighting for the Kurdish freedom movement as part of the People’s Defence Forces (HPG), the military wing of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Aksoy was targeted by the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office under one of 216 warrants handed out against rights advocates, journalists, politicians, and lawyers since 25 April, just three weeks before Turkey’s pivotal elections. The investigation alleges arrestees’ ties to the PKK.
Aksoy said that her son had joined the PKK in 2010. She was notified in 2017 that her son had been killed in a clash, but İpek’s remains were kept from her for three years after his death, until his bones were eventually sent to her in a box, she said.
The grieving mother did not know that her son’s bones were in the package. She had been informed by the courthouse to expect a file, and she had been waiting for a DNA analysis result for her son’s remains. “While I was waiting for the file, they showed me a package lying on the floor and said, ‘Your bones have arrived.’ I just stood there.”
Agit İpek’s bones were buried in their village in Turkey’s Kurdish-majority southeastern Mardin (Mêrdîn) province. Aksoy said that security forces did not allow a traditional funeral, and that only her brother and two relatives from the village had accompanied her during the burial.
Aksoy’s brother Hadi said that the bones were in a sealed bag and, to spare his sister from pain, that they had not opened the bag to check the bones.
“We wanted the imam from the village to come and bury the bones in a shroud, but they did not allow this either. … We buried it quickly and left the village because the security guards wanted us to hurry,” said Aksoy.
On 25 April, Aksoy’s daughter, Mizgin Karataş, was detained in a house raid, along with her son-in-law Harun Karataş and her 4-year-old granddaughter Çiya. Çiya was held for a day before being handed over to a relative. After three days in detention, Aksoy’s daughter and son-in law were brought to Diyarbakır Courthouse.
Harun was released on judicial control conditions, but Aksoy and her daughter Mizgin remain behind bars.
Aksoy’s lawyer, Necat Çiçek, stated that his client was arrested based on allegations that she used her home as a “safe house”, in witness statements given by Ümit Akbıyık. “Mother Halise’s phone calls with journalists were also charged as an offence,” the lawyer said.
Mizgin’s lawyer, Hasan Yalçın, stated that they have filed an objection. “There is nothing in the file except for the location procedures and phone calls,” he said.
