Sevda Karaca, the MP for Antep from the Labour Party (EMEP) of Turkey, noted that the young people were subjected to disciplinary investigations simply for chanting the slogan 'The dignity of humanity will defeat torture,' while no investigation was launched into the harassment allegations. She emphasized that the resistance of the youth and the persistence of women’s struggle will continue to be the greatest fear of this government.

Seventeen young people who were arrested in Izmir on 26 and 28 March for participating in protests against the politically motivated operation targeting Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu were assaulted in Menemen Prison for refusing to comply with an order to stand during roll call. Following the assault, they were placed under investigation for chanting slogans.

Sevda Karaca told ANF that the violence inflicted on the young detainees had been documented by volunteer lawyers from the Izmir Bar Association. Karaca said: “Some of the young people who were arrested on 26 March and taken to Menemen Prison were subjected to violence in the observation ward for not standing during roll call. They were dragged from their ward to the yard and beaten. The signs of this violence were documented by volunteer lawyers from the Izmir Bar Association. The bar’s administration filed an application to secure the prison’s camera footage and demanded the launch of a criminal investigation.”

We will continue to follow this brutality

Karaca stated that the young people she met in Menemen Prison told her they had been subjected to a disciplinary investigation and asked to give statements because of what had happened. She explained: “The prison administration we spoke to claimed that the disciplinary investigation was launched because the young people resisted and chanted slogans. These young people, who should not spend even a single minute in that prison, were subjected to violence, a direct reflection of the hatred and hostility spread by the government’s spokespersons, and of an authority that has turned unlawfulness and injustice into a guiding principle. Let it be clear to the prison officers who consider such inhuman treatment their right. This brutality, which should in fact be the subject of a criminal investigation, will be closely monitored. Together with the Izmir Bar Association, we will not let these assaults against the youth be forgotten. We will not let them be pushed out of the public conversation. The young people who are facing disciplinary investigation simply for chanting, ‘The dignity of humanity will defeat torture,’ are not alone.”

They are complicit in the crime

Sevda Karaca also criticized the prosecutor’s office and the police for their response to the testimony of a female student who reported being harassed while in custody, after her statement began circulating on social media. Karaca continued: “Women who declared that they were harassed during detention and had this torture officially recorded in their statements should be the subject of investigations. Instead, the prosecutor’s office is trying to intimidate those who refuse to let these incidents be forgotten. At the very least, this is what we call complicity in crime. If you are not complicit, then investigate the cases of women who have made official statements declaring that they were harassed and subjected to sexual violence.”

They remain the government’s greatest fear

Karaca emphasized that the youth's resistance and the unyielding struggle of women will continue to be the government’s greatest fear. She added: “While government spokespersons engage in empty rhetoric, they are at the same time drawing inspiration from coup eras to suppress the struggle for rights, assaulting young people in prison, subjecting women to sexual harassment in custody, and pushing state violence even further. We will not allow them to erase what has happened. We will not let them forget.”