Yeşim Tükel was among the 17 people taken into custody in Istanbul on 22 June. She said that they were battered, insulted and threatened with rape. “I am angry and I will not take a step back," she said.

17 members of the Revolutionary Party and the Youth Revolutionary Forces (Dev-Güç), were detained by the gendarmerie and the police in the morning of 22 June and were released on Friday. Due to the confidentiality decision on the file, the reason for the raids and detentions could not be learned, and the fact that many people were taken into custody despite the absence of an arrest warrant reveals the extent of unlawfulness. Yeşim Tükel, a member of the Women's Liberation and Revolutionary Party, one of those detained unlawfully, spoke to ANF.

Tükel said that the house where 4 people stayed in Sarıgazi was raided by the Police Special Operations (PÖH) members and the gendarmerie, who came with long barrel guns at around 4 am on 22 June. “They broke into our house by breaking the outer door. Special Operations police entered our rooms pointing their guns at us and saying 'We'll shot you on the head, raise your hands'. They did not show a search warrant, nor did they allow us to call the lawyer. Because I tried to stop the beating of a friend of mine, a Special Operations officer threw me to the ground and kicked me, saying, "Now it's your..."

Tükel continued: “They tried to unlock our phones. They gathered us all in a room and laid us face down with our hands on our heads. I was the only woman and they constantly cursed me and threatened me with rape. One said ‘Now you will have to leave this house too, but I will find you a house, on one condition that you give me a massage. I was subjected to hours of verbal abuse and threats.’

Another Special Operations officer gave the name of the policeman who beat me and said, 'I'll call Yakup if you want. He doesn't normally treat women like that, he's more affectionate, but he took his anger out on you.' When I didn't answer the questions they asked, they said, 'You miss Yakup, you need to take another beating before you leave here'. While walking around the house during the search, they were deliberately step on us. They were kicking us even though we were lying on the floor. They did not open the camera except during the search. Although we were tortured in this way for hours, when we were taken to the hospital, they tried to enter the examination room with us. They had to leave at the doctor's warning.”

Tükel, who was taken to the Gendarmerie Istanbul Provincial Command despite no arrest warrant, said that many of her friends were pushed into working as agents. Tükel stated that they could not learn the reason for the raid because there was a confidentiality order on the file and added: “There weren't any arrest or detention warrants for me and my other two friends staying in the same house. We were taken just because we were at home. When we said that we wanted to meet with a lawyer, they said they were just learning information from us, we did not have a status which required a lawyer.”

Tükel said that she felt very angry after what happened and added: “This is not a method of the male state we do not know. We know them from the way they hand out underwear in the houses they enter in Kurdistan, the way they write ‘We came, you weren't here’ in the bedrooms, and the torture they inflict on women who defend the Istanbul Convention. This man did not represent an unfamiliar face of the state. We were also subjected to these tortures because we were part of the feminist and socialist movement. I am angry but I will not take a step back despite these attacks. We will continue to increase our struggle.”