07/04/2025 | Writer: Kaos GL
Women and LGBTI+ individuals made a press statement in İstanbul, İzmir and Antalya regarding the police violence against women and LGBTI+ individuals who have been participating in protests since March 19.
Photo: Sendika.org
On Saturday, April 5, women and LGBTI+ individuals gathered in Istanbul, Izmir, and Antalya to protest the strip searches and harassment against women and LGBTI+ individuals who were detained by the police after participating in demonstrations since March 19 with the detention of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB) Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and his team.
As reported by Sendika.org, women and LGBTI+ individuals in İstanbul wanted to march to Karaköy, but the march was blocked by the police. The press statement was made in Eminönü.
Key points from the press statement are as follows:
“In the protests that began on March 19, while standing up for our rights, our cities, our will, our lives, our future, and democracy, we were once again subjected to sexual violence by the police, mistreatment, and the failure of doctors in healthcare institutions to document this, and we witnessed it.
We, as feminists, call out to the Istanbul Police Department and to the prison officers working in the prisons:
Using sexist slurs against women and LGBTI+ individuals, threatening them with rape, and committing sexual harassment is a crime.
Cornering women and LGBTI+ individuals alone, touching their breasts and bodies is sexual assault, and it is a crime.
Your duty is the opposite of this: it is to prevent men who do such things at home, on the street, at work, or anywhere else. You should not be one of them. You are the institution women are expected to turn to when they are harassed. You may have forgotten this, but we have not.
Unlawful strip searches and sexual torture during detention or in prison are crimes. Sexual torture is a crime. The fact that the perpetrator is in uniform, claims to do it on behalf of the state, or calls it a "routine procedure" does not change this truth.
We ask: Did you receive an order to harass women and LGBTI+ individuals, corner them, touch them, and threaten them with rape? Who gave you that order?
To all the women and LGBTI+ individuals who have been subjected to sexual violence by the police for raising their voices in the streets, to those who feel alone, afraid, or who, when seeing this on social media, feel anxiety because they know what it is like to be harassed by a man, to those who are nervous about the threat of sexual assault or the possibility of being strip-searched, we are calling out to each other, to all of us:
We are not alone. We are not helpless. We are organized in the face of this oppression, we are together, we stand by each other. They are committing this torture to degrade, shame, and intimidate us through our bodies and identities. But that shame has already been shifted. It is not us who should be ashamed, judged, and punished; it is them. Those who talk to us about "morality" while harassing women are the torturers.”
“We will continue to be in the streets against the theft of our lives and in solidarity against sexual violence!”
“We did not remain silent when they subjected Garibe Gezer to sexual torture in sponge rooms yesterday, nor when they tried to perform “cavity searches” on our friends arrested in the HDK operations. Today, we are still not silent, we do not accept it, and we do not normalize it. Just as today the dictator sees himself above the law, the police also see themselves above the law. This is why, when we object to any form of mistreatment, they can respond with mocking expressions and say, “Then file a complaint.” Some, pretending to be well-intentioned, say, “Don't tell the doctor, don't mention it in your statement, the process will take longer.” This is not goodwill, it is the violation of rights. They trust the governor who refuses to grant permission for investigations, the prosecutors who dismiss our criminal complaints, and the president who, in the past, called us “whores” and granted amnesty to the murderers of Konca Kuriş. While harassing women and LGBTI+ individuals in detention, while committing crimes, they lean on them. On top of that, some trolls open social media accounts and organize sexist attacks against female lawyers who are bringing this violence to the agenda, sharing their photos with labels like “escort.” They think no one will pursue them. But we know them very well. We are calling on the entire society and public to pursue them. Let’s identify those who commit this crime, those who turn a blind eye to it, and those who are complicit; let’s fight together for them to be held accountable and prosecuted!
We will continue to be in the streets against male-state violence, the theft of our will and our lives, and in solidarity against sexual violence! Long live our feminist struggle!”
In Izmir, LGBTI+ individuals and women: “Once again, we shout out: the pressure cannot intimidate us”
In Izmir, women and LGBTI+ individuals held a press statement in front of the Türkan Saylan Cultural Center, saying 'Harassment during detention, strip searches are crimes; perpetrators should be prosecuted.'"
As stated by Sendika.org, here are the key points from the press statement:
"On March 19, following the uprising of Istanbul University students and the wave of courage that spread with their determined stance against the police, we took to the streets from all over Turkey, not only in response to the arrest of Ekrem İmamoğlu but also against the trustee practices we’ve long known in Kurdish cities, animal slaughter, anti-LGBTI+ legislation, femicides, state-sponsored massacres, and the destruction of our future.
Since that day, it has been recorded that the police systematically apply torture and violence during protests, using chemical weapons like pepper and tear gas, water cannons, plastic bullets, and batons against protesters. While unjust detentions occur during the demonstrations, we are also receiving reports of violence, torture, and strip searches during detention. Our arrested friends are being denied access to water, clean food, and basic hygiene supplies.
We, who have never given up on the streets and have been fighting for our rights for years, know police and state violence all too well! In defiance of those who seek to steal the people's will and oppress them with torture, we have been in the streets since March 19, resisting! Once again, we shout out: the pressure cannot intimidate us."
In Antalya, women and LGBTI+ individuals: “Stop covering up sexual violence in detention, prosecute it”
A similar press statement also came from women and LGBTI+ individuals in Antalya. In the press statement made on April 5 at Attalos Square, women and LGBTI+ individuals said, “Stop covering up sexual violence in detention, prosecute it.”
According to a report on Sendika.org, here are the key points from the press statement:
“Every time we shout for our rights in the squares of this country, we recognize the police armies, the riot police cordons, and the pepper sprays lined up against us. Today, nothing has changed. Women, LGBTI+ individuals, students, and workers who took to the streets across Turkey against the lawlessness against Ekrem İmamoğlu are once again confronted with the same state violence. Detentions, strip searches, sexist slurs, harassment... Women who are tried to be silenced in police station corridors... We recognize this violence!
Strip searches, which have no place in the laws but are applied behind the cover of regulations, have turned into systematic torture. Article 17 of the Constitution is clear: Torture and ill-treatment are prohibited! Strip searches, especially when arbitrarily applied to women after political actions, are an obvious violation of rights and gender-based violence”
Tags: human rights, women, life
