(en) Turkey, Media, Fascist newspaper wrote, police raided
and arrested anarchists
Anarchist space infiAl Collective was sealed off by police. Three people from İnfiAl were
taken into custody and some posters were seized with the reason that they were criminal
and includes threats and insults against President Erdogan and other parliamentarians.
---- Following infiAl’s announcement of self-defence workshops will be done, islamist
fascist Vahdet newspaper mobilized the police by publishing a report with the title
“Anarchist are preparing themselves for civil war” and police raided infiAl which is a
place that anarchists get together in Beyoğlu. ---- Police seized two posters which they
found in the place and took three people who were in the place (one of them is lawyer)
into custody. ---- They want to take them to Anti-Terror Office but the accusation is
insulting president of the republic
Lawyer Davut Erkan who spoke to Bianet, told that attorney general decided to send the
people who were taken into custody to the anti-terror office but as the police could not
find any evidence to relate them with an organization and as they were charged with
insulting president of the republic, they keep waiting in Vatan police department.
Erkan told that police raided the place three days ago but after the intervention of the
anarchists who were in the place, they took a search warrant and came again today. Erkan
said that:
“Vahdet newspaper published a report with the title “Anarchist are preparing themselves
for civil war”. What they refer is a self-defense workshop. Today police come with a
search warrant. Since they could not find anything about the issues in the search warrant,
they seized two posters that they found in the library that will be set up for the memory
of one of our friend (Kerem Kamil Koç) that we lost short time ago.
“The people who were taken into custody were brought to Beyoğlu police office first but
after the posters that were found in the place the accusation turned into insulting
president of the republic. For this reason they were brought to Anti-terror unit in Vatan
police station.
“Attorney general decided to send them to the anti-terror office but as there is no
relation with an organization our clients are still waiting in the police vehicle.
Generally police behave negatively towards accusations of insulting president of the
republic, therefore I think we will wait here a few more hours.”
Why was the place sealed off?
Erkan told that the place was sealed off with the reason of “it does not have business
operating license” and he said that this place is a space of anarchists who organize movie
screenings and workshops:
“It is not a place of business; they do not do anything with money. One of our friends
rented this place as a painting studio. He speaks with municipal police, and they say that
a license is not necessary for studios. But after it is realized that it is a political
place they sealed off without a committee decision. The sealing off the place is not legal.”
The reason for the raid is “trainings related with PKK and marginal organizations”
