Police violence against Kezban Saçılık

The CHP’s Barış Yarkadaş, addressing the general assembly of parliament, expressed disgust at the way Kezban Saçılık, mother of Veli Saçılık who is supporting academic Nuriye Gülmen and teacher Semih Özakça, was dragged along the ground by police officers for voicing opposition to her son being arrested. Yarkadaş said, “Veli Saçılık, who has been dismissed from his job under a decree with the force of law, had his arm torn off in a prison operation staged in 1999. On that day, his mother was dragged along the ground by police officers while she was looking for her son and her son’s arm. And also, on that day, the skirt she was wearing was forcibly removed. Ever since that day, mother Kezban has been unable to wear a skirt and goes around in trousers. Mother Kezban, today just as in 1999, was once more dragged along the ground in Yüksel Street by police officers while running after her son. Her glasses were broken and her face injured. Finally bring this torment, this torture in Yüksel Street to an end.”

Yarkadaş, in a written question to which he is seeking an answer from Prime-Minister Binali Yıldırım, on the other hand, has inquired into the arresting of and treatment meted out to Aydın Aydoğan, who was struck in the leg by a gas canister during the Gezi Resistance. Yarkadaş, pointing out that Aydoğan was arrested one day after having filed a criminal complaint into President and AKP General Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, asked, “Was this arrest coincidental or a planned intimidation operation?”

Let the permission requirement be scrapped

Yarkadaş proposed in his speech to Parliament, “Let the requirement to seek the Justice Ministry’s permission for visits to detained parliamentarians and journalists be scrapped. This requirement was imposed by the AKP. There was previously no such obstruction.” Yarkadaş had also set out his proposal in the form of a bill, and submitted this to parliament. It has been learnt that Parliamentary Speaker İsmail Kahraman will also meet with Prime-Minister Binali Yıldırım and Justice Minister Abdülhamit Gül with a view to the removal of the obstruction on visiting the detained HDP MPs.