Journalists Eylem Düzyol and Fulya Atalay were subjected to police violence at Pangalti.
Following the police crackdown on Gezi Park, journalists Eylem Düzyol and Fulya Atalay wanted to take photographs of the scene, but got beaten up by the police, despite showing their press cards. Taraf reporter Bahar Kılıçgedik‘s brother Hasan Kılıçgedik (30) also got hospitalized after getting hit in the head by a tear gas canister as he was protesting the police attack on Gezi Park.
Düzyol and Atatlay spoke to T24 and recounted what happened:
We officially got beaten up. We were next to the Armenian cemetery on Kurtuluş Avenue at Pangalti. We watched the events for an hour and a half. It was very intense and violent. The police wasn’t able to enter the street we were on. An hour later, riot police threw tear gas and intervened. In other words, police retaliated for the two and a half hours they had to wait.
I had sea goggles on and my camera was with me. After the police intervention, we took shelter in a building. As a couple of other people were entering the building, so did the police. We told them that we were journalists. The police officer who wanted to see our press cards was calm and told us, “Come on, hurry up!”. At least four police officers brutally beat up the kid who let us in. We showed our yellow press cards to the police officer who was watching us. However, the riot police who came later beat us up with batons as well as punching and kicking us. They tried to take away what we had in our hands. We told them we were journalists. Police spewed hatred on us. It was obvious that they were going to beat us severely.
We were trying to hold on to each other. They had our press cards. A police officer pulled off Fulya’s gas mask. They took us out to the street and started beating us outside. Any police officer who happened to pass by slapped and kicked us. One of the police officers said, “These are journalists”. We started running away. Since police had taken away our gas masks, we were heavily affected by the pepper spray and tear gas. Our eyes hurt terribly. A couple of buildings farther, approximately 100 meters, we ran into a friend who was also a journalist. We went into his house, waited there for half an hour and tried to pull ourselves together.
Fulya Atalay reported being exposed to less police violence than did Eylem Düzyol, thanks to her backpack. She said, “There is a problem with my leg but no bruises on my body. Eylem was more unguarded.”
Taraf reporter’s little brother was heavily injured
Taraf reporter Bahar Kılıçgedik‘s brother Hasan Kılıçgedik (30) also got hospitalized after getting hit in the head by a tear gas canister as he was protesting the police crackdown on Gezi Park.
Kılıçgedik was taken to a hospital after receiving medical intervention by volunteer doctors at the scene. He will be under medical observation for a week. Hasan’s father, Ali Kılıçgedik recounted the incident: “My son told me that the police specifically took aim at him as he was firing the tear gas canister. The bone above his right eye is fractured and he suffers from a nasal fracture. Apparently, construction workers had distributed helmets to the protesters there. If he wasn’t wearing that helmet, we would be facing a more serious condition right now. We were lucky. He is going to have an operation after staying under medical observation for a week.”
Ali Kılıçgedik also added that his son had joined the protests because of environmental sensibility. He said, “The police intervention shouldn’t have been this brutal. The government is using excessive force against anyone who opposes or criticizes them. Even if the PM doesn’t see it, the world has seen it. The response to a democratic action should not be violence.” With these words, Kılıçgedik expressed his reaction to the brutal police intervention and said that he is going to file a criminal complaint.
Ahmet Küçük
16 June 2013
This post is also available in: Turkish