Horror stories from the coup
Horror stories from the coup
Rahime Kesici was held at the torture-center in Diyarbakýr Prison No. 5 during the 12 September military coup. She told her story to DIHA News Agency. Kesici recalled that she was subject to all kinds of torture including “electric torture, bastinado, walking on salt, water pouring and undressing” in Diyarbakýr Prison which she defines as “a prison painted with blood”.
The prison witnessed inhumane tortures on women victims as much as the men detainees during the coup period. Rahime Kesici from Siverek district of Urfa who was 21 at the time tells that she was taken to the prison following a raid in the campus of Dicle University where she was studying.
The arrest of Kesici, who tells that thousands of Kurdish students were taken into custody following a raid carried out in Dicle University, which was the “stronghold of the revolutionaries” in that period, was justified with the leaflet she distributed called “Mothers, teach your native languages to your children” when she was the administrator of Revolutionary Democratic Women's Association (DDKD) in the university.
Kesici recounts the detention period as follows; “My detention was terrifying. Blindfold, we were dragged on the ground by being pulled from our hair. The detention process, lasted 45 days, was fraught with all kinds of beating, torture and threats to kill or parents. Soldiers were beating us with sticks while taking to the toilet which was allowed only once a day.”
Kesici can’t forget the women police officers torturing other women. They weren’t any different from the male police. Kesici says; “They would forget their women identity while torturing and insulting us just like their male co-workers. I was wondering and asking myself how those women could be mothers and love their children. At last, I could conclude that these weren’t human beings or animals, they were a different family. Besides tortures and insults, they were also hurting the pride of women detainees by cutting their hair or taking off the headscarves of old women.”
Kesici emphasizes that the prison’s all walls were painted with blood, noting that they were laughing with tears during the tortures where their fingers were beaten with planks until their nails were broken into two. “I have never regretted and will never repent of the struggle we gave against the savagery in the prison thanks to our belief in fighting and our strong personalities”, says Kesici to sum up the determination of the detainees.
Kesici says it is very difficult to be a woman in male-dominant societies and she is impressed by the attitude of male detainees that day. Kesici tells that; “They were particularly protecting us by shielding themselves in front of us. We were feeling that the approach towards us was hurting them very much. You hold your head high and gain strength when you by chance catch each other’s eyes with a comrade on a corridor of the prison. That look with love and in pain, which doesn’t look like any look, was the thing that prevented my capitulating and dragged me into fighting.”
The prison witnessed inhumane tortures on women victims as much as the men detainees during the coup period. Rahime Kesici from Siverek district of Urfa who was 21 at the time tells that she was taken to the prison following a raid in the campus of Dicle University where she was studying.
The arrest of Kesici, who tells that thousands of Kurdish students were taken into custody following a raid carried out in Dicle University, which was the “stronghold of the revolutionaries” in that period, was justified with the leaflet she distributed called “Mothers, teach your native languages to your children” when she was the administrator of Revolutionary Democratic Women's Association (DDKD) in the university.
Kesici recounts the detention period as follows; “My detention was terrifying. Blindfold, we were dragged on the ground by being pulled from our hair. The detention process, lasted 45 days, was fraught with all kinds of beating, torture and threats to kill or parents. Soldiers were beating us with sticks while taking to the toilet which was allowed only once a day.”
Kesici can’t forget the women police officers torturing other women. They weren’t any different from the male police. Kesici says; “They would forget their women identity while torturing and insulting us just like their male co-workers. I was wondering and asking myself how those women could be mothers and love their children. At last, I could conclude that these weren’t human beings or animals, they were a different family. Besides tortures and insults, they were also hurting the pride of women detainees by cutting their hair or taking off the headscarves of old women.”
Kesici emphasizes that the prison’s all walls were painted with blood, noting that they were laughing with tears during the tortures where their fingers were beaten with planks until their nails were broken into two. “I have never regretted and will never repent of the struggle we gave against the savagery in the prison thanks to our belief in fighting and our strong personalities”, says Kesici to sum up the determination of the detainees.
Kesici says it is very difficult to be a woman in male-dominant societies and she is impressed by the attitude of male detainees that day. Kesici tells that; “They were particularly protecting us by shielding themselves in front of us. We were feeling that the approach towards us was hurting them very much. You hold your head high and gain strength when you by chance catch each other’s eyes with a comrade on a corridor of the prison. That look with love and in pain, which doesn’t look like any look, was the thing that prevented my capitulating and dragged me into fighting.”
