A breastfeeding mother was separated from her eight-month-old baby when she was transferred from an İstanbul prison to another one in Gebze, the pro-Kurdish DİHA news agency reported on Tuesday.
According to the agency, Gülistan Akbaba was transferred from İstanbul’s Bakırköy Prison for Women and Juveniles, where she had been held for over two years, to Gebze, a city situated around 60 kilometers southeast of İstanbul, on the Gulf of İzmit, the eastern arm of the Sea of Marmara
During the transfer, Akbaba reportedly refused to get into the police van with her baby, claiming that the infant “couldn’t stand such a journey in a vehicle.” Upon her refusal, police officers handed the baby to the lawyers representing Akbaba.
The mother was sent to Gebze, while her baby was left with the lawyers outside Bakırköy Prison.
Fortunately, the mother and child were reportedly reunited some hours later with help from the lawyers.
When she was a member of now-closed pro-Kurdish Democracy and Peace Party (BDP) in 2012, Akbaba was sentenced to six years, three months in prison for “disseminating the propaganda of a terrorist organization.”
The BDP was a Kurdish political party in Turkey existing from 2008 to 2014. The BDP succeeded the Democratic Society Party (DTP) in 2008, following the closure of the latter for its alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). (turkeypurge.com) April 12, 2017
