AMED - Özgür İpek, one of the workers who were attacked by police, warden and a racist group in Balıkesir, said: “It was an organized and planned attack. The only reason was that we were Kurdish.”

 

Özgür İpek, Mehmet Argın and Cemal Güzel, construction workers in Balıkesir, were detained by the police on the evening of August 21 while listening to Kurdish music in Atatürk Park in Altıeylül district. The workers did not give their ID cards to the police officers who asked for their ID cards on the grounds of “complaints from the neighborhood”, stating that they were listening to music. 

 

Upon this, 3 workers were attacked and beaten by the police, the warden and the amusement park owner who filed a complaint. After being detained, the 3 workers were brought to the Balıkesir Courthouse. After their statements were taken by the prosecutor's office, the workers were referred to the court for arrest on charges of “making propaganda for an illegal organization” and “resisting the police”. 

 

Cemal Güzel was arrested, while İpek and Argın were released on judicial control conditions. 

 

Özgür İpek, one of the workers who returned to his hometown Amed (Diyarbakır) after the attack, told our agency about the racist attack and what happened afterwards.  

 

WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE ATTACK 

 

İpek stated that he went to Balıkesir from Amed to work a month ago and that they went from the construction site where they were working to the park to listen to music and were warned that “people are disturbed”.  İpek said that the music in the amusement park was louder and described what happened as follows: “We left the park and walked to the construction site where we were staying, which was already ten minutes away.  The guards suddenly appeared in front of us. They said, 'There is a report about you' and asked for our ID cards. The owner of the amusement park came before they even asked us for our IDs. 'This is Turkey, you have to speak Turkish. There are no Kurds,' and then we were surrounded by dolphin police, guards and the racist amusement park employees.  They handcuffed us behind our backs. They started torturing us and then they started hitting us with batons.”   

 

'IT WAS PLANNED ATTACK'   

 

İpek stated that they started to think that they were going to die due to the extent of the violence, and that the watchman threatened them that “he has only one bullet to live”. Stating that those who tried to prevent the situation were also taken into custody, İpek said that the security guards of the hospital where they were taken after the detention made the “grey wolves” sign and said “this is Turkey, you will obey”. İpek said: “We were attacked by the racist group there while we were being taken to the detention bus, but no one helped us. They did not even allow us to inform our families. There were many security cameras where we were, we told them to look at the cameras if we said anything. No one heard us. Everything we said is documented. While the police and guards were beating us, the racist group was also using violence. So it was an organized and planned attack. After they beat us, we went to the hospital. We wanted to inform people about what had been done to us, but they didn't allow us to do that and used violence again. The doctors who examined us wrote a report regardless of the fact that my friend's nose was broken and took us to the police station.  When we were brought to the hospital again the next day, there was another doctor there. He wrote a report.”

 

'THE ONLY REASON IS THAT WE ARE KURDS'    

 

Demanding justice, İpek said that his worker friends in Balıkesir are not safe. Stating that Cemal Güzel, one of their friends, was arrested, İpek said that they were alleged to have shouted slogans and said “This is Kurdistan” but this was untrue. İpek said that the main reason they were attacked was because they were Kurdish and said: “To justify what they did, they claimed that we ‘insulted the President.’ They say ‘resisting the police’ but they didn't even let us speak, let alone resist. They detained 3 other people who came to save us from them.  We don't know them. They were already asking 'do you know them' when we were detained.” 

 

APPLICATION TO I·HD 

 

Stating that Güzel was being held in Balıkesir Prison and therefore in life-threatening danger, İpek continued as follows: “A guard's finger was broken when they beat us. Later they said we broke his finger. We couldn't even make a sound when we were in that situation. How could we fight with whom?  Our friends who saw the incident said that 40-50 people beat us.”

 

Stating that they will apply to the Human Rights Association (IHD), İpek said: “We will ask for our rights. We do not accept this persecution against us.”