Kurdish family battered in racist attack in western Turkey

A Kurdish family who wanted to buy a house at a village in the western province of Aydın were severely battered in racist attack.

Tuesday September 13 2022 03:13 pm

Duvar English

A racist group battered a Kurdish family who bought a house in a village in the western province of Aydın, saying “Kurds cannot live here.”

Cengiz Türkan bought a house in the Arpadere village of Aydın’s İncirliova district. The locals threatened Cengiz Türkan, who went to the village with his family to see the house, saying that they could not live in the village because they were Kurds.

Then the villagers blocked the road when the family wanted to leave the village and attacked them. The villagers used iron sticks and severely battered four members of the family, including women and children, Mezopotamya News Agency reported on Sept. 13.

The battered Semra Türkan asked for help from the state's Women Support Application (KADES) mobile application, but no police teams were sent.

Describing the incident, Emrah Çakmaz, who was badly injured, said that the villagers attacked them with iron sticks.

“I said, 'I'm bleeding out and I'm going to die'. They didn't care. Someone threw a stone at me, it hit me in the neck. Meanwhile, I called the gendarmerie and asked for help. But the gendarmerie said, 'Go to the hospital and get a report of assault. Then file a complaint about all of them,' and then they hung up the phone,” he said.

Çakmaz further described the incident as follows: “When I went to the hospital, my father called me and said ‘We are all in a very bad condition. Your brother Hasan's condition is very bad, they broke his skull. They fired a gun at your mother's foot. I ran into the forest to save my life. Your mother and brother may have died.’ When my family fell unconscious, villagers thought they were dead and left the scene.”

Topics Aydın Kurds Kurdish issue in Turkey