A group of women from the Ankara Women's Platform gathered in Kolej junction in the capital city of Ankara yesterday (August 12) and wanted to hold a statement for press against the feminicides in Turkey and the country's possible withdrawal from the İstanbul Convention.
However, the police prevented the statement.
As reported by daily Evrensel, police officers asked the women who gathered in front of the Kolej subway station to disperse on the grounds that they were blocking pedestrian and vehicle traffic. Surrounding the women, the police attempted to disperse them while the women protested the police intervention, saying that male violence was also in place there.
Police officers detained several women in rear handcuffs. Among the detained women was also Eylem Akdağ, a reporter for the Mezopotamya Agency. As reported by the Mezopotamya Agency, 30 women detained in police intervention have been released late at night.
The women faced the possible charges of "resisting the Law on Meetings and Demonstrations" and "resisting the police." Stating that they were battered while being detained and subjected to ill treatment, the women did not depose at the police department. They have been released following the related formalities at the police department and medical check.
After being released from detention, the women protested their detention by opening the banners that they carried earlier in the day and chanting the slogan, "İstanbul Convention keeps one alive'!"
The names of the released women are as follows: Lawyer Sevinç Hocaoğulları, Nebiye Merttürk, Buse Üçer, Aysun Gençtanır, Zeynep Tan, Aylin Kalp, Kardelen Demir, Emel Vural, Yağmur Alaz Gülveren, Gülçin Polat, Sena Bademli, lawyer Arzu Kurt, Sude Sivri, Gülbahar Gündüz, Beste Uymaz, Tuğba Koçer, Serap Kaplan, Meziyet Yıldız, Zelal Su Değirmenci, Deniz Keles, İpek Arapoğlu, Dicle Paşa, Derman Gülmez, Songül Kurt, Meryem Gönbe, Sibel Göktaş, gazeteci Eylem Akdağ, Fatma Kılıçarslan.
Women's Defense platform has also released a video of the intervention, attaching the note: "In Ankara, women are dragged on the ground because they defend the İstanbul Convention! Our lives are not a matter of negotiation. We will not give up on İstanbul Convention!"
