Police in Turkey’s capital Ankara attacked a Women's Platform rally marking the anniversary of the unsolved disappearance of Kurdish student Gülistan Doku. At least seventeen women, including two correspondents of the all-female news agency JinNews, Habibe Eren and Öznur Değer, and freelance journalist Eylül Deniz Yaşa, have been forcibly detained. Mezopotamya Agency (MA) reporter Mehmet Günhan, who was covering the activists' meeting, was violently battered by security forces. In addition, his press card has been confiscated. Meanwhile, it is unclear to which police station the arrested women were taken.

The police justified the assault on the rally as a measure to combat the pandemic, saying that gatherings in public are prohibited even if the distance regulations are observed. The Women's Platform in Ankara had only wanted to make a press statement in front of the City Hall in the central district of Çankaya.

After the attack, the women gathered at the nearby feminist meeting center called Mor Mekan. The building is currently under siege by the police. The situation remains tense.

Women in other cities in Turkey and northern Kurdistan also took to the streets today to ask for the whereabouts of Gülistan Doku. Exactly one year ago, the university student, who was born in Amed (Diyarbakir) and was 21 years old at the time, disappeared without a trace in Dersim. The police investigation is still formally ongoing, but this is not enough for the family and women's organizations. The investigation is considered insufficient.