Turkey: Mother of 45-day-old infant among detained Kurdish journalists

While 11 Kurdish journalists were arrested in dawn raids in Turkey's several provinces on Tuesday, the police pointed guns at a woman journalist during a raid, and another woman journalist was taken to custody without being allowed to breastfeed her 45-day-old infant.

Dilan Babat, Ankara correspondent for all women news agency JinNews, told +Gercek after she was released that the house she shared with other women journalists was stormed around 6 AM by a police unit armed with assault rifles.

"I was in my room. They blast into the room carrying assault rifles and forced me to lie on the floor (...) Some of them sat on us and made us wait in reverse handcuffs till they have taken images," she said.

"They pointed their guns at my friend Rozerin. They had us wait for three and a half hours in reverse handcuffs. They threw insults and swore all the time. They seized our computers and mobile phones."

Ankara Cumhuriyet Başsavcılığı’nca yürütülen soruşturma kapsamında, ajansımız ve Mezopotamya Ajansı muhabirleri evlerine yapılan baskınla gözaltına alındı#GazetecilikSucDegildir https://t.co/FI07cCr0Ra pic.twitter.com/ObICHyv4UP

— Jin News (@jinnewsturkce) October 25, 2022

Among the detainees there is also Zemo Aggoz, the mother of an infant, Mezopotamya News Agency (MA) reported.

Aggoz was not allowed to breastfeed her 45-day-old infant before she was taken into custody, and the infant could not be fed for at least four hours as Aggoz's lawyer could not immediately find out where she has been taken to, MA said.

The detained journalists were denied access to their lawyers for 24 hours, "because of the nature of the offenses they have been charged with."

The journalists currently in custody are:

Diren Yurtsever (executive editor of MA), MA reporters Deniz Nazlim, Selman Guzelyuz, Zemo Aggoz, Berivan Altan, Hakan Yalcin, Emrullah Acar, Ceylan Sahinli, Jinnews reporters Habibe Eren, Oznur Deger, and journalist Mehmet Gunhan.

16 Kurdish journalist who were arrested on 8 June are still remanded in custody.