Torture and rape of children; a systematic part of the colonialist policy
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The attitude of the Turkish state towards the Kurdish children have always been the colonialist, genocidial way of killing and imprisoning them, under the slogan "smash the snake's head before it grows up". Mizgin Ozbek, Ceylan Önkol and Ahmet Kaymaz are only the most symbolic names among tens of children killed with a number of bullets higher than their age.

 

01 April 2012 /International Bulletin / No. 115

 

In April 2011, the human rights violations, torture and sexual abuse suffered by Kurdish children imprisoned in Pozanti M Type Juvenile Prison in Adana, Turkey due to political reasons came to the agenda through handwritten notes of 7 children aged between 13-17 years sent to the Mersin Branch of the Human Rights Association. Unfortunately, the incidents in the Pozanti Prison are neither surprising nor an isolated case but a systematic part of the traditional negation and annihilation policy of the Turkish colonialist fascist regime. After the cases of rape in the Pozanti Prison became public, another case of rape in the Mersin Prison came out and doubtlessly there are many more still unknown examples; as the state forces are continuing to threaten the children even after their release from prison.
Together with the still continuing total isolation of the Kurdish national leader Abdullah Ocalan, the detention and imprisonments of thousands of Kurdish people, air bombings and use of chemical weapons against the guerrilla and civil massacres like in Roboski, the organised torture and rape of Kurdish children mostly arrested because of "having thrown stones to the police" or "participation in illegal demonstrations" is another aspect of the dirty war waged against the Kurdish freedom movement. The attitude of the Turkish state towards the Kurdish children have always been the colonialist, genocidial way of killing and imprisoning them, under the slogan "smash the snake's head before it grows up". Mizgin Ozbek, Ceylan Önkol and Ahmet Kaymaz are only the most symbolic names among tens of children killed with a number of bullets higher than their age.
In Turkey and Northern Kurdistan, the number of juvenile prisoners in the age group of 12-18 years amounts to thousands and the majority of them are coming from poor Kurdish families. The Pozanti Prison was known for brutal torture even before the cases of rape, sexual abuse and torture committed by the guardians and criminal prisoners encouraged by the guardians through words like „they are from the PKK , you can do whatever you want to them "came to the agenda. Sexual, physical and mental abuse was a policy applied against the Kurdish children all time. Last year in August, the 15-year-old Yasin Akyuz had been killed under torture there. In the autopsy report it was diagnosed that he suffocated after his ribs were broken. Those cases are no exceptions but a state policy. Thus, the president of the International Terrorism Centre (UTSAM) linked to the police academy Dr. Suleyman Ozeren said: "our target group of the fight against terrorism should be between 12-25 years old. We should concentrate 90% of our energy on them."
Journalists of the Kurdish news agency DIHA were the first ones revealing the sexual torture in the Pozanti Prison and publishing interviews with the children talking about the hell they went through "Some of our friends were raped by the ordinary prisoners dozens of times. They sometimes tried to force our trousers down. Our experiences cannot be described". A child named T.T., who was imprisoned in 2009, was one of the key persons exposing the scandal. After the interview he gave to DIHA, he was imprisoned again in the beginning of March accused of having participated in an illegal demonstration. He was transferred to the F-type prison Kurkculer, where he tried to commit suicide. His father, who visited him afterwards said that he was crying without stopping saying "After Pozanti they give me even a harder time, father, rescue me".
Another aspect showing how the bourgeois Turkish state is dealing with the topic after having denied it for month saying "the PKK makes these children lying" was to arrest the journalists Ali Bulus, Hamdullah Keser and Ozlem Agus from DIHA Adana office who first exposed the child sexual abuse incidents in Pozanti Prison in an operation carried out on 6 March within the scope of the KCK operation. Ozlem Agus was sent to prison.
After protests increased and the scandal was discussed broadly in the media, the government used this to transfer the children to an F-type prison. The Justice Minister Ergin declared that all minors incarcerated in the Adana juvenile Prison will be transferred to Sincan Juvenile Prison near Ankara. This is five hundred km away from their families which makes it very difficult for them to visit their children and moreover there, they are kept in isolation cells. Instead of undertaking the smallest step towards a solution of the child prisoners, which is part of the Kurdish question, the colonialist fascist regime is continuing to increase its total war on all fronts, including against the Kurdish children.

 

 

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Torture and rape of children; a systematic part of the colonialist policy
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The attitude of the Turkish state towards the Kurdish children have always been the colonialist, genocidial way of killing and imprisoning them, under the slogan "smash the snake's head before it grows up". Mizgin Ozbek, Ceylan Önkol and Ahmet Kaymaz are only the most symbolic names among tens of children killed with a number of bullets higher than their age.

 

01 April 2012 /International Bulletin / No. 115

 

In April 2011, the human rights violations, torture and sexual abuse suffered by Kurdish children imprisoned in Pozanti M Type Juvenile Prison in Adana, Turkey due to political reasons came to the agenda through handwritten notes of 7 children aged between 13-17 years sent to the Mersin Branch of the Human Rights Association. Unfortunately, the incidents in the Pozanti Prison are neither surprising nor an isolated case but a systematic part of the traditional negation and annihilation policy of the Turkish colonialist fascist regime. After the cases of rape in the Pozanti Prison became public, another case of rape in the Mersin Prison came out and doubtlessly there are many more still unknown examples; as the state forces are continuing to threaten the children even after their release from prison.
Together with the still continuing total isolation of the Kurdish national leader Abdullah Ocalan, the detention and imprisonments of thousands of Kurdish people, air bombings and use of chemical weapons against the guerrilla and civil massacres like in Roboski, the organised torture and rape of Kurdish children mostly arrested because of "having thrown stones to the police" or "participation in illegal demonstrations" is another aspect of the dirty war waged against the Kurdish freedom movement. The attitude of the Turkish state towards the Kurdish children have always been the colonialist, genocidial way of killing and imprisoning them, under the slogan "smash the snake's head before it grows up". Mizgin Ozbek, Ceylan Önkol and Ahmet Kaymaz are only the most symbolic names among tens of children killed with a number of bullets higher than their age.
In Turkey and Northern Kurdistan, the number of juvenile prisoners in the age group of 12-18 years amounts to thousands and the majority of them are coming from poor Kurdish families. The Pozanti Prison was known for brutal torture even before the cases of rape, sexual abuse and torture committed by the guardians and criminal prisoners encouraged by the guardians through words like „they are from the PKK , you can do whatever you want to them "came to the agenda. Sexual, physical and mental abuse was a policy applied against the Kurdish children all time. Last year in August, the 15-year-old Yasin Akyuz had been killed under torture there. In the autopsy report it was diagnosed that he suffocated after his ribs were broken. Those cases are no exceptions but a state policy. Thus, the president of the International Terrorism Centre (UTSAM) linked to the police academy Dr. Suleyman Ozeren said: "our target group of the fight against terrorism should be between 12-25 years old. We should concentrate 90% of our energy on them."
Journalists of the Kurdish news agency DIHA were the first ones revealing the sexual torture in the Pozanti Prison and publishing interviews with the children talking about the hell they went through "Some of our friends were raped by the ordinary prisoners dozens of times. They sometimes tried to force our trousers down. Our experiences cannot be described". A child named T.T., who was imprisoned in 2009, was one of the key persons exposing the scandal. After the interview he gave to DIHA, he was imprisoned again in the beginning of March accused of having participated in an illegal demonstration. He was transferred to the F-type prison Kurkculer, where he tried to commit suicide. His father, who visited him afterwards said that he was crying without stopping saying "After Pozanti they give me even a harder time, father, rescue me".
Another aspect showing how the bourgeois Turkish state is dealing with the topic after having denied it for month saying "the PKK makes these children lying" was to arrest the journalists Ali Bulus, Hamdullah Keser and Ozlem Agus from DIHA Adana office who first exposed the child sexual abuse incidents in Pozanti Prison in an operation carried out on 6 March within the scope of the KCK operation. Ozlem Agus was sent to prison.
After protests increased and the scandal was discussed broadly in the media, the government used this to transfer the children to an F-type prison. The Justice Minister Ergin declared that all minors incarcerated in the Adana juvenile Prison will be transferred to Sincan Juvenile Prison near Ankara. This is five hundred km away from their families which makes it very difficult for them to visit their children and moreover there, they are kept in isolation cells. Instead of undertaking the smallest step towards a solution of the child prisoners, which is part of the Kurdish question, the colonialist fascist regime is continuing to increase its total war on all fronts, including against the Kurdish children.