Hakkari Governorate announced a curfew in Şapatan (Altınsu) village, Dereboyu hamlet, İncesu hamlet and Elde neighbourhood in Şemdinli district. According to the related statement of the Governorate, the curfew will be in place from 22:00 to 05:00 every night for 5 days, and entry to and exit from these areas has been banned.

In an operation launched on August 6 night by the Turkish army and police forces in Altınsu (Şapatan), a village with a population of 2000, the village was surrounded after one special operations police officer was killed. 36 villagers were tortured and detained. Entry to and exit from the village was banned and the detainees were subjected to further torture in the district police headquarters.

20 out of the 36 people with marks of torture on their bodies were released after they were processed in the police headquarters.

Four days ago, a delegation consisting of HDP MPs Mizgin Irgat and Nihat Akdoğan, HDP Party Assembly Member Özgür Zeydanoğlu and HDP Hakkari Provincial executives visited the Şapatan village to investigate the reported torture incident and to show solidarity with citizens.

The HDP delegation stated afterwards that the people of the village are HDP voters, and are often exposed to such repression, saying: “In this incident a clash that took place in the area was used as a pretext, and all the houses in the village were raided by army forces at dawn. Some villagers were beaten up with hoses and some others were stabbed with skewers. Only 36 people have been named in the media, but nearly 100 people were beaten up. Women told us that they were harassed. In every house they went, the security forces harassed women.

The governorate had denied the villagers’ statements. But even after four days, their bruises and wounds were fresh and clearly visible. The authorities should come and take a look. An 80-year-old mother was struck on her arm with a riffle-butt. The backs of the young people are in a condition much worse than we see in the photos. Women, they could not even talk about what they went through. We observed that not only physical violence, but also psychological violence had been perpetrated here.”

HDP delegation said they wanted to talk to the district governor, the prosecutor and the chief physician on the issue, but all of them rejected their request.

A resident of the village, Necmettin Korkmaz, told after the incident that: “They tied my hands to the panzer and dragged me some 500 meters up the village, until the headman’s home. I was not allowed to stand up. Every time I tried they kicked me. I wasn’t allowed to speak, to shout or to scream.”

Korkmaz said the whole village was beaten en masse, and continued: “There were people waiting for us by the entrance of the police headquarters. They said ‘the guests have arrived’. They beat everybody, some civilians stopped the beating outside. They told us we would not be able to leave.”

The man said a doctor named Dr. Elif Ç. refused to issue battery reports after the torture, and told the police: “You didn’t beat this one enough, do some more. The blood of our martyrs will be avenged. I won’t give anybody reports.” He added that they had faced similar oppression for the last 3 years.