On 27 July, an explosion occurred while an armoured vehicle carrying Turkish soldiers was passing through the Yüksekova (Gever) district of Turkey’s south-eastern province of Hakkari (Colemerg).
After the explosion, the roads near the surrounding villages and highways were closed for hours. Several villagers were detained by Turkish soldiers on suspicions of having a connection with the explosion. Relatives of the detained, however, say that the soldiers detained people arbitrarily and without any reason or evidence, Fırat News Agency reports.
One of the villagers, Abbas Kırmızıtaş from the Muşan village, was reportedly subjected to torture as he was detained, and was later arrested on 30 July.
His wife Zehra Kırmızıtaş described what happened on that day and explained that her husband was badly beaten and was told he would be killed by the soldiers:
”They came in the morning and handcuffed my husband. There were three guns pressed against his head with more than 40 soldiers around. They detained him. They tortured him. My baby was sleeping when they raided the house. They put a gun against my head too so I wouldn’t try to go near my husband.”
Nebahat Kırmızıtaş, the mother, also witnessed the raid and the soldiers torturing her son:
”They all pushed their guns into his back and against his head. When I told them my son was innocent and asked them to stop, they pulled me away. I told them to take their guns away from the head of my son, that he couldn’t breathe. They responded by making him lie on the floor and pushed their guns against his head. ”We’ll kill him. Get out of here or we’ll arrest you!” they yelled.
