A pregnant woman who was detained along with her husband in İzmir’s Buca district has sent the following story to Turkey Purge:
Eight people in plainclothes raided our apartment at 6:30 a.m. after ringing all the bells at the main entry. One of them waited at the entrance of the apartment building with a weapon in his hand. Another one waited in front of our door. Six others quickly entered our apartment to conduct a search. They were constantly asking about computers and tablets and telling us to hand them over, and were shouting at us that “you will found guilty if you are hiding them.” Although we told them we don’t have any computers or tablets in our house, they continued to ask. As soon as they entered our apartment, they seized our mobile phones.
We asked them to let us get properly dressed as we had just woken up, but they refused. I told them I will be having a baby in 10 days and that I stayed in a hospital for two days since I have experienced some bleeding. They wouldn’t listen. They took us to the police station without letting us to take our 6-year-old son, who was sleeping, with us when we left the apartment.We were kept in a room under custody until 6:30 p.m. without water or food. I had difficulty breathing since I’m pregnant, but they wouldn’t even let us open the window.
They continued to ask about our computers at the police station despite the fact that we had already told them we don’t have any. We couldn’t convince them. In order to worry us, they were talking near us, saying, “If we were allowed to, we would shoot you in the head, but…” They were also pressuring us by saying: “Look. Give us few names and go free. Otherwise, it will be difficult to get released.”After the interrogation at the police station, they took my handcuffed husband in a police car for a health check at a hospital. They were talking about me among themselves, saying, “Let her alone to stew in her own juice.” I was freed after that. I went back home alone from the hospital they let me off at. They took my husband.
