Police from the Special Operations Department were filmed attacking a civilian in the Akçakale district of the Şanlıurfa (Riha) province in Turkey, showing that police brutality against Kurds remains an ongoing problem.
The incident was recorded by witnesses and in the footage the viewer can see that the civilian is repeatedly saying that he did not see the car that the plainclothes police were driving, but the police continue to attack him for not giving way on the road.
A similar incident also took place in Ağri (Agiri). When a shopkeeper asked a police officer from the Special Operations Department to move his car from in front of his shop, the officer responded violently.
The shop keeper filed a criminal complaint, but 14 other police officers from the same Special Operations Department retaliated by beating both the shopkeeper and three other police officers who wanted to separate them.
The video recorded by the lawyer was deleted by the police, but the shopkeeper filed another criminal complaint against 14 Special Operations Police and an investigation has been launched into the incident.