ŞIRNAK - Cizre Municipality Co-Mayor Berivan Kutlu who was detained recently, told that the police threatened her into leaving the country.

 

Last month a group claiming to be "a unit established by the Ministry of Internal Affairs" called a lot of people including HDP executives in Şırnak and its districts. The special task group asked the HDP executives if they wanted to benefit from the repentance law because they were members of HDP or if they wanted their sons and daughters who joined the PKK to return.  As a continuation of these pressures, 12 people were released four days after they were detained in the recent raids in Cizre district.

 

Among those detained, Cizre Municipality Co-mayor Berivan Kutlu and HDP District Co-chair Güler Tunç told about their experiences during detention. Kutlu, who has been actively involved in the Kurdish women's struggle for 20 years, has been detained 15 times, and 50 investigations have been initiated against her and 10 of those investigations turned into law suits. Kutlu was arrested twice on different occasions.

 

Kutlu said: "We have been face to face with threats, oppression and attacks. We encounter these approaches in our daily lives too. The oppression has become a routine. We saw that the gains of the women's struggle is especially disturbing for them. This is why they target us."

 

Kutlu continued: "We have seen all shades of violence. The law enforcement officers are trying to convince us that the power of women can not be compared with the power of the state and that we can't do anything. As a woman raised in Botan, I'll say they can not stop us by detaining and arresting us. We will never submit to their pressures. And they know this as well. They threatened me to give up the struggle and leave the country. I will never step down. Our struggle will strengthen as they keep attacking us."

 

'THEY POINTED THEIR GUN TO MY HEAD'

 

Stating that they were detained because of the women's struggle, Güler Tunç said: "This was an operation of revenge. They surrounded our house, broke the door down, busted in and pointed their gun to my head. They attack us as the women struggle gains something. They are trying to marginalize the work HDP does. They have been attacking us for years and we never stepped back. We will keep fighting."

 

 

MA / Zeynep Durgut