Nazan Bozkurt, a woman dismissed from public service by emergency decree after Turkey’s July 15, 2016 coup attempt, denounced the jailing of mothers with infants after police dragged her away from a protest site, according to footage shared online.
Bozkurt, one of thousands of people removed from their jobs by decree-laws during Turkey’s post-coup state of emergency, was seen being grabbed by the arms and dragged for several meters by police.
After being released at another location, she made a statement criticizing the treatment of women jailed with very young children.
“The AKP is arresting babies too,” Bozkurt said, referring to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party. “They are trying to hand over the babies whose mothers they arrested to child protection agencies.”
“What kind of people are you?” she said. “AKP members will not die before experiencing what they have made these people experience.”
Her remarks referred to cases in which women with four- or five-month-old babies were jailed during Turkey’s sweeping post-coup crackdown, despite legal and humanitarian objections over the imprisonment of mothers with infants.
Rights advocates have repeatedly criticized Turkish authorities for detaining or imprisoning pregnant women and mothers of small children, often in cases involving alleged links to the Gülen movement rather than violent conduct.
Ankara blames the coup attempt on the Gülen movement, a transnational civic initiative inspired by Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, and designates the movement as a terrorist organization. The movement denies involvement in the coup or any terrorist activity.
Bozkurt’s protest also drew attention to the broader grievances of people dismissed by emergency decrees, known in Turkey as KHKs.
More than 100,000 public servants were removed from their jobs under decree-laws after the coup attempt, many without ordinary disciplinary proceedings, individualized evidence or an effective avenue for immediate judicial review.
Many dismissed public employees say they were left unable to work in their professions, stripped of passports and stigmatized as security threats.
Bozkurt has become one of the visible faces of those protests, repeatedly objecting to what she describes as collective punishment and demanding justice for purge victims.
The footage of her being dragged by police underscored the continuing pressure faced by decree victims who attempt to protest in public.
Her statement shifted the focus from her own treatment to jailed mothers and babies, arguing that the state’s post-coup prosecutions were punishing children who had no connection to any alleged offense.
Day 1316, noon
Nazan Bozkurt:
The AKP is arresting babies too! They are trying to hand over the babies whose mothers they arrested to child protection agencies!
AKP members will not die before experiencing what they have made these people experience! pic.twitter.com/hSIeBS7R8D
— YükselTv (@TvYuksel) June 16, 2020
