Turkish police reportedly beat and detain a family for listening to Kurdish music

15.07.2025

By SCF

Source: https://stockholmcf.org/turkish-police-reportedly-beat-and-detain-a-family-for-listening-to-kurdish-music/

Turkish police reportedly beat and detained a group of family members in Istanbul after they were found listening to Kurdish songs, leading to the hospitalization of a pregnant woman, the Bianet news website reported.

According to the Association of Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD), the incident occurred Saturday in the Bayrampaşa district as 10 members of the same family were returning from a picnic. The family was playing Kurdish music in their car when police officers stopped them.

Ümit Kaya, who was driving, said he noticed an officer taking photos of the car and asked why. The officer responded with verbal abuse and accused them of playing loud music. Kaya said that when his brothers got out of the car, the officer reached for his weapon. Plainclothes police officers then reportedly intervened and began physically assaulting family members.

Among those allegedly beaten was Zeynep Yaman, a woman seven months pregnant. According to her relatives, she collapsed after being kicked in the stomach and later underwent an emergency cesarean section. Both she and her newborn were reported to be in intensive care.

Three people — a 14-year-old boy, Yaman and her mother — were released shortly after the incident. The remaining seven, including Ümit Kaya and his brothers, were detained overnight and brought before a judge.

On Sunday an Istanbul court released the seven under judicial supervision, including a requirement to sign in with authorities twice a week and a two-day ban on driving an automobile.

The detentions prompted a protest outside Istanbul’s main courthouse, where hundreds gathered to denounce the police action. Demonstrators, including members of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), chanted slogans in Kurdish and Turkish. Signs read “No life without language” and “We will not allow racism.”

“Torture is a crime against humanity,” DEM Party lawmaker Çiçek Otlu said. “We want those responsible to be punished, and we will follow this case.”

https://twitter.com/i/status/1944517254319874390

The ÖHD said it had filed a criminal complaint and released footage of the incident on social media. Berivan Bekçi, an ÖHD lawyer, said there was no resistance to justify the police response. “They were subjected to serious police violence,” she said.

Kurds in Turkey are often pressured not to speak their native language. Prohibitions against the use of Kurdish in Turkey go back many years. Kurdish language, clothing, folklore and names were banned in 1937. The words “Kurds,” “Kurdistan” and “Kurdish” were among those officially prohibited. After a military coup in 1980, speaking Kurdish was formally forbidden, even in private life.

The visibility of Kurdish on TV and in the print media was only made possible in the early 2000s thanks to significant progress made in the country’s bid to become a member of the EU.

Yet, the drift towards nationalism and the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) alliance with the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) in the last decade has led to an increase in anti-Kurdish racist attacks.