A protest was staged in Van to raise objections to a child molestation which involves 27 persons, including soldiers, police officers and village guards in Gercüş district of Batman.

HDP Van Deputy Murat Sarısaç and HDP members also supported the action organized by Free Women’s Movement (Tevgera Jinên Azad, TJA) activists in front of the HDP headquarter.

The police blocked the party headquarter and insulted MP Sarısaç, saying they would not allow the statement to be read out.

Police attacked the crowd with batons as they were preparing to make a statement confronting the threats of the police.

Meanwhile, reporters from JinNews and Mesopotamia Agency who wanted to cover the scene were battered by the police and removed from the area. Furthermore, the police tried to seize the journalists' cameras.

After the crowd was kept behind police barriers for a long time, the press statement was finally made by DBP (Democratic Regions Party) Van branch co-chair Gürdane Varlı.

Varlı denounced the increasing cases of femicide, violence and sexual abuse against women and children in Turkey and the Kurdish region where -she said- a very special policy is being pursued. Varlı recalled the case of 18-year-old Kurdish girl İpek Er who was abducted and drugged by Turkish staff sergeant Musa Orhan and raped for weeks in Batman province. While the girl committed suicide and died in hospital on August 18, the sergeant did not face any legal action over his crime and was released after only one week in custody.

Varlı stated that the broadcast ban imposed on the news on the latest rape incident in Batman is an attempt to cover up the incident with the policy of impunity, noting that the Jinnews reporter who revealed the incident has been threatened by Turkish state forces.

Gürdane Varlı stressed that they will not stop demanding justice and addressed her remarks to the women in Gerçüş: “You are not alone. We are here. TJA, HDP and the struggling women are here. We will give a struggle together.”