Socialist youth activist Berfin Polat imprisoned in Istanbul

Berfin Polat, a board member of the Federation of Socialist Youth Associations, has been arrested in Istanbul as an alleged member of a terrorist organisation.

Berfin Polat, a board member of the Federation of Socialist Youth Associations, has been imprisoned once again.  On Friday, she went to an Istanbul court on a summons, where she was arrested and brought before a magistrate. The arrest warrant was based on the charge of "membership of a terrorist organisation" - a systematic and arbitrary accusation against opposition activists in Turkey.

Berfin Polat is a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Federation of Socialist Youth Associations (SGDF) and of the Central Coordination of the ÖGK (Free Young Woman). In the parliamentary elections on 14 May, she stood for an MP mandate on the list of the Green Left Party. This is not the first time the young activist has been in prison. In November 2021, at the age of 18, she was jailed in Bakirköy women's prison, accused of terrorism for posts on digital media. A few months earlier, she had her arm broken during a police attack on a commemoration ceremony for the victims of the ISIS attack of 20 July 2015 in Suruç district of Urfa.

Commenting on Berfin Polat's arrest on X (formerly Twitter), the SGDF said: "They don't want the revolutionary struggle to meet the masses of youth. Revolutionary people are meant to be incapacitated. However, the repression and every attack will only lead to even greater determination.”