Fifteen Turkish bar associations in a joint statement on Monday criticized police interventions and detentions linked to protests condemning alleged rights abuses in Syria’s Kurdish-run northeast, saying they had resulted in serious rights violations.
In the statement the bar associations pointed to a series of recent incidents they said showed growing pressure on freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly.
The bar associations criticized police interventions in protests held in several southeastern provinces condemning attacks by forces linked to Syria’s interim government on the Kurdish-led region in northern Syria known as Rojava. They said the demonstrations were peaceful but were met with disproportionate force and unlawful detentions that resulted in allegations of ill-treatment, calling for effective investigations into the claims.
In one instance a protester, identified only by the initials D.K., suffered multiple fractures to his spine and head and showed signs of internal bleeding after a beating by gendarmes.
The bar associations also cited the case of a nurse in the northwestern province of Kocaeli after a widely shared video showed her braiding her hair in support of an online campaign that started after a separate video circulated earlier this month from the Syrian city of Raqqa showing a man holding up a woman’s cut braid and claiming it belonged to a fighter linked to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
In response, women in Turkey and across Kurdish communities began posting videos of themselves braiding their hair as a sign of solidarity, describing the campaign as a protest against what they said was the humiliation and targeting of Kurdish women.
The video of the nurse carried the message, “It may not be the same braid, but it is the same pain, the same feeling.”
The Kocaeli Provincial Health Directorate later announced the launch of judicial and administrative investigations, saying the nurse’s posts supported the “hair-braiding” campaign and violated Turkey’s civil service law and ethics principles for public employees.
In their statement the bar associations said the incidents reflected a broader increase in pressure on fundamental rights and freedoms and warned that failing to investigate allegations of mistreatment deepens a perception of impunity.
The statement was signed by the bar associations in Adıyaman, Ağrı, Batman, Bingöl, Bitlis, Dersim, Diyarbakır, Iğdır, Hakkari, Mardin, Muş, Siirt, Şanlıurfa, Şırnak and Van.
