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Turkish pro-government outlets on Monday started a smear campaign against the spokesperson of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) over her comments during an interview with Medya News Turkish (Medya Haber).
Two dailies, Sabah and Yeni Şafak, both attacked HDP MP Ebru Günay, accusing her of representing Turkish soldiers and police as rapists.
The Kurdish MP was evaluating the women’s struggle in 2022 and discussing cases of violence against women in her interview with Medya Haber.
Both outlets used only a part of Günay’s interview, completely out of context, to support their accusations.
“In Kurdistan there is a concept of private war being conducted by soldiers and police that we call uniformed harassment and rape, and similar incidents to that which started with İpek Er have been continuing, a process of persecution being supported by a policy of total impunity,” Günay says in the part of the interview used by pro-government media.
Günay was referring to the 18-year-old young Kurdish woman İpek Er who died in hospital after attempting suicide in the southeastern province of Batman in 2020. In a letter she left, Er accused Turkish special sergeant Musa Orhan of abducting and raping her. She had lodged a complaint and given a sworn statement to the State Prosecution in Siirt before shooting herself.
Orhan was arrested after Er’s suicide letter was shared by women’s groups online, but was later released. He was dismissed from public duty and sentenced to 10 years in prison for sexual assault in 2021, but was granted conditional release.
The former sergeant has sued certain celebrities for their comments on the rape incident.
