Public outrage continues over the sexual assault and strip search torture inflicted on young people detained during the Saraçhane protests, which began following the annulment of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor and Republican People’s Party (CHP) presidential candidate Ekrem Imamoğlu’s 30-year-old university diploma and his arrest.

Eren Keskin, co-chair of the Human Rights Association (IHD) and one of the founders of the Legal Office Against Sexual Harassment and Rape in Detention, told ANF that sexual torture in custody has been implemented as a state policy for many years.

Keskin emphasized that torture has always been used as a method of state policy in this region and noted that one of the forms of this torture is sexual torture.

Keskin said she first became aware of the existence of sexual torture during her own unlawful detention in the 1990s. She said, “We were aware in the 1990s that sexual harassment and rape in custody were being used as methods of torture, but no one was talking about it. However, when I was imprisoned in 1995, I came face to face with reality in a much more direct way. A woman I was representing as a lawyer told me that she had been subjected to sexual assault and rape while in custody.”

It was most widely used in Kurdistan as a policy of war

Eren Keskin said that after being released from prison, she took action against this silenced method of torture. In 1997, together with German lawyer Jutta Hermans, who was in Turkey at the time, she established the 'Legal Office Against Sexual Harassment and Rape in Detention.'

She emphasized that during that period, sexual harassment and rape in custody were especially used in Kurdistan as part of a war policy and said, “We first began by assessing the legal situation.

At that time, for example, there was no mention of ‘women’ in the Turkish Penal Code. There was no section titled ‘violence against women’. The only reference was to the crime of rape. That section was called ‘crimes against general morality and the family.’ In other words, the concept of women did not exist in the Penal Code. There was not even a legal definition for ‘sexual harassment.’

The definition of rape was also extremely limited. According to the Supreme Court’s rulings, rape was defined solely as the forced penetration of a woman’s vagina by a man’s sexual organ. But women were not only subjected to sexual violence through genital assault; they were also raped with batons, truncheons, and assaulted anally and orally. None of these acts were legally recognized in the Turkish Penal Code.

Thanks to long struggles by the women’s movement and us, as women lawyers, significant changes were made to the Turkish Penal Code in 2005. Sexual assault was defined as a specific criminal offense. The definition of rape was expanded, and sexual harassment was finally recognized as a crime.”

Sexual torture is the most difficult form of abuse for women to speak about

Eren Keskin pointed out that sexual torture in custody is the most difficult form of abuse for women to talk about. She explained that while many women were able to describe being subjected to electric shocks or the Palestinian hanging position during detention, they often felt ashamed, afraid, and excluded when it came to speaking about the sexual torture they endured. Keskin shared that whenever she asked women why they did not speak about this form of torture, the most common response was, “My father would not accept it, my husband would not accept it.” She stated, “Most women remained silent because they believed the men in their families would not be able to handle it. This was, in fact, the result of the patriarchal moral code that has been imposed on us. But over the years, especially as Kurdish women and female political prisoners developed greater awareness of their rights, they began, though still not sufficiently, to speak out about sexual torture. For example, there are still women who come to me and say, ‘I was raped in custody during the 12 September period, but I have never told anyone until now.’ It is such a deeply difficult form of torture to talk about, and it is completely silenced, even forbidden to speak of. And yet, sexual torture does happen. It is a widely used method.”

Expecting one state institution to document the torture committed by another

Eren Keskin also highlighted that sexual torture is one of the most difficult forms of torture to document. She explained that if a woman is subjected to sexual assault or rape in custody, proving it requires either DNA evidence remaining on her body or obtaining a medical report before washing. If she is not a virgin, and the trauma is not detected immediately, it is often recorded in reports as an 'old vaginal tear.' She stated that in such cases, the only remaining path is psychological documentation. At the time, as the Legal Office Against Sexual Harassment and Rape in Detention, they began working with a center in Çapa led by Professor Sahika Yüksel to obtain psychological reports for survivors.

Keskin stressed that the biggest obstacle has always been, and still remains, the Forensic Medicine Institute (ATK), whose decisions continue to spark controversy today. She stated, “In Turkey, because torture is a state policy, prosecutors and judges accept only ATK reports as valid evidence. But ATK is itself a formal state institution. They expect one arm of the state to document the torture committed by another. Naturally, no such documentation is ever provided. This problem also affects sick prisoners, prosecutors and judges insist on ATK reports, even though hospital records or reports from rehabilitation centers and independent physicians, such as those from the Human Rights Foundation, should also be accepted.”

She recalled a landmark case: “In 1993, a woman named Şükran Aydın was sexually assaulted in custody by a military unit under the command of Musa Çitil. When the case resulted in impunity in Turkey, we, Osman Baydemir, Meral Danış Beştaş, Reyhan Yalçındağ, and I, took the case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The ECHR convicted Turkey, and one of the key reasons was the absence of a medical report from an independent physician, because ATK had failed to document the torture. We present this ECHR ruling in every similar case we handle, yet despite that, files are still routinely sent to ATK. This is because it is part of an entrenched system.”

Abuses can be proven by psychological reports

Eren Keskin recalled a recent testimony from a young woman who was detained during the Saraçhane protests, stating that a male police officer had touched her breasts. She emphasized that touching a woman’s body and using gender-based insults constitute acts of sexual torture. While such abuse may be difficult to document physically due to the lack of visible traces, Keskin explained that it can be proven through a psychological report, which can also be obtained from a hospital.

Keskin highlighted that sexual torture is a crime and must not go unpunished and said: “In general, there is widespread impunity in torture cases in Turkey, but psychological reports can serve as proof. At the very least, having such a report in hand allows the survivor to exhaust domestic legal channels and take the case to the ECHR. This is a form of legal struggle. For example, when we first opened the legal office in 1997, there was an alarming number of rape cases in custody. Today, we receive fewer applications, not because the violence has disappeared, but because there is now greater awareness about legal rights, changes in the law have been made, and both society and the women's movement are speaking out about this crime.”

Let the Minister of Justice visit prisons with us and speak to the women

Although it is denied today by Minister of Justice Yılmaz Tunç, Keskin stated that strip searches have always existed during detention or at the entrances of prisons. She reminded that strip searches are a method of torture and ill-treatment. Emphasizing that “no one can be subjected to treatment that humiliates their dignity,” Eren Keskin added that the Republic of Turkey is a state that has signed the United Nations Mandela Rules, and that these rules define the standards for the treatment of persons in custody.

Keskin underlined that the Republic of Turkey has signed both the Mandela Rules and the ECHR and stressed that countries that are party to these agreements are not allowed to subject anyone to torture or ill-treatment. She stated that strip searches constitute a form of sexual torture and noted that this method of torture is intended to humiliate a woman, to break her down psychologically, and to violate her private space.

Drawing attention to the fact that strip searches are today a widely used method of torture in Turkey, Eren Keskin pointed out that, for example, no woman is admitted into Bakırköy Women’s Closed Prison without being subjected to a strip search. Despite this reality, she noted that she has never encountered a single minister who has acknowledged the existence of strip searches, and for that reason, she stated that she is not at all surprised by the denial from Minister of Justice Yılmaz Tunç.

Eren Keskin recalled, “Years ago, when we made a public statement about a woman who was raped with a truncheon during detention, one of the ministers at the time was able to say, ‘Our police officers are built like rocks, why would they need to use truncheons?’ This mindset has become so normalized in their minds. So here is my proposal: Minister of Justice Tunç and any other politician who denies this reality should visit prisons with us and speak to the women.”

The spread of strip search torture is largely due to the opposition

Eren Keskin reminded that the widespread continuation of torture methods such as sexual assault in custody and strip searches today is also heavily due to the main opposition. She said: “In our geography, especially in the 1990s, sexual torture was inflicted on Kurdish women, but no one spoke about it. We made statements over and over again, publications were released, we spoke about it at panels, but no one brought it onto their agenda. For example, when the naked body of Ekin Wan was displayed in Varto, it was only Kurdish women who reacted. It did not make it into the agenda of the main opposition, nor anyone else's. They only pay attention when they themselves are the victims.

In this geography, you cannot achieve anything by only blaming the state. You must also confront your own double standards. The same goes for the situation of sick prisoners. According to the data of the IHD, there are currently around 1,600 to 1,700 seriously ill prisoners in Turkey’s prisons. None of them are being talked about. They have been condemned to the heartless decisions of the ATK, and they are dying in prison.

This issue is now finally being widely discussed, and rightfully so, because of what happened to Mahir Polat. That is important, of course. But it is precisely because you did not speak out before that Mahir Polat has now suffered this cruelty. Some people go on TV and say, ‘My child was tortured. Is my child a terrorist?’ If you ask that question, you will never get anywhere. Because everyone knows that when they say ‘terrorist,’ they are referring to Kurds.

For example, in my view, one of the most politically dangerous figures in this geography is Umit Ozdağ. But if Umit Ozdağ were to be tortured today, I would oppose it. If your opposition to torture depends on political identity, then torture will continue. The moment you say, ‘It’s okay if it’s done to someone who is not one of us,’ you have already lost your right to oppose torture.”

Those who call themselves opposition are selective in their empathy

She concluded, “In this geography, unfortunately, those who call themselves opposition are extremely selective when it comes to victims, and they apply constant double standards. I believe this lies at the root of many of the problems we face today. We saw it during the cotton candy incident as well. No one in this geography has suffered human rights violations like the Kurds have. They lost their most precious ones. Their children were tortured to death, their villages were burned, people disappeared in custody, there were counter-guerrilla executions and none of this ever made it onto the agenda of one half of the country. No one spoke out.

 But now, because a police officer gave cotton candy to Kurdish children, someone like Mansur Yavaş, a fascist, and speaking on behalf of the opposition, says, ‘You treat the children here like this, but you hand out cotton candy there.’ As if torture only began during the rule of the Justice and Development Party (AKP). But that’s not the case. Torture has always existed in this geography. And it is being sustained today precisely because you remained silent.”