Police in southeastern Turkey briefly detained and allegedly beat a 15-year-old boy for wearing a T-shirt bearing the word “Kurdistan” on Tuesday, the Numedya news website reported.
The teenager, identified only by the initials B.K., was detained in the Cizre district of Şırnak province and released later in the day without being questioned after Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) lawmaker Newroz Uysal Aslan and provincial party officials visited the local police headquarters, while the party’s Şırnak provincial branch urged authorities to conduct an effective investigation into the incident.
The teenager gave a statement to prosecutors at the Cizre courthouse on Wednesday, where he faces accusations of “preventing a public official from performing their duty” and “insulting a public official.”
The boy also filed a criminal complaint against the police officers, alleging that he was battered and dragged on the ground during his detention and that officers forcibly removed and confiscated his T-shirt during a hospital visit for a medical examination.
He said he was mistreated when he objected, although the medical report did not document any signs of ill-treatment and alleged that police briefly seized his mobile phone and deleted recordings from the device.
In Turkey clothing featuring Kurdish symbols or references to Kurdistan can lead to detentions and prosecutions on charges of disseminating terrorist propaganda.
In 2016 a person was convicted on such charges for wearing a T-shirt bearing the word “Kurdistan” and Kurdish symbols. Despite a July 2024 ruling of the Constitutional Court which found that his right to freedom of expression had been violated, such incidents have continued.
In a recent case, Amedspor, a football club based in the predominantly Kurdish province of Diyarbakır, was also fined over a Kurdish-language advertising slogan on its jerseys.
