Duygu Erol/JINHA

ANKARA - Co-mayors of Kurdish cities report that police arrested them, then threatened and tortured them for several days.

Over the last week, Turkish police have arrested a range of the co-mayors of Kurdish towns. ("Co-mayor" refers to a system wherein a man and a woman are elected together to ensure gender parity.) The arrests have targeted towns and neighborhoods where the local people have declared self-government. Police threatened and tortured the elected co-mayors for several days.

Fatma Şık Barut is the co-mayor of the Sur district of the city of Diyarbakır; Yüksel Bodakçı, co-mayor of the town of Silvan. Both towns have been under heavy police assault over the past week. The co-mayors were arrested along with Güneş Ölmez. Güneş works at the women's grassroots educational program the Women's Academy in Diyarbakır.

According to Fatma Şık Barut's aunt Seyran Şık Karabulut, who spoke with the co-mayor, police have subjected the women to degrading treatment and torture. After police arrested the women in Diyarbakır, they brought them before a judge. However, police cut off the women's testimony, saying, "keep it short; we're late." The police then loaded the women into unmarked cars along with other activists. The unmarked cars immediately left the city.

"Go ahead and do your 'self-defense' if you can," the police told the women, with their hands on the triggers of their guns. They were referring to the self-defense teams that have emerged in Kurdish towns and neighborhoods to defend them from police. "Let's see."

The trip lasted two days, during which period police refused to tell the women's families where they were transporting them. The women finally arrived at Sincan prison, in the Turkish capital of Ankara. There, police subjected the women to what they called a "careful search." Police strip-searched and sexually harassed the women.

"This detention was not lawful. We're talking about a political trial made by a political order," said Seyran.

(gc/cm)