MP Barış Atay criticizes lawmaker over release of soldier accused of sexual assault. Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu replies MP Atay ‘would be a perfect rapist’

ANKARA / ISTANBUL – After a week in detention, a Turkish court on 26 August released a Turkish army sergeant accused of sexually assaulting an 18 year-old Kurdish woman in Batman on grounds the sergeant is not a flight risk and can await further proceedings outside jail. The 18-year-old girl committed suicide and died on 18 August 2020.

Barış Atay, a Member of Parliament for the Turkish Workers Party on 30 August criticized this decision in a direct Twitter address to Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu. According to MP Barış Atay the available evidence, among others messages by the soldier with friends, would not justify such a conditional release. MP Atay said,

“You protected a serial rapist, under your watch @suleymansoylu. On every occasion we will remind you of this. We will not (make you) forget this.”

Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu replied via Twitter,

“You leftover of the PKK and DHKP-C, made and instructed by the HDP and rapist PKK leaders; I can’t be a “protector of rapists”; but you would be a perfect rapist; you protector of Tuma; be careful; don’t get caught…”

Sen bir seri tecavüzcüyü korudun, kolladın @suleymansoylu Hayatın boyunca her fırsatta yüzüne vurulması, asla unutmaman için uğraşacağız https://t.co/72dq8BIOXh

— Barış Atay (@barisatay) August 30, 2020

On 31 August, Turkish Workers Party MP Barış Atay was attacked by unknown assailants. He was brought to hospital but was not seriously injured.

Another recent probable non-prosecution case which received much attention on social media was the case of MP for the AKP Şirin Ünal. On 23 September 2019, domestic worker Nadira Kadirova from Uzbekistan watching over the sick wife of Şirin Ünal was found dead in the house of Şirin Ünal. Kadirova (23) was claimed to have shot herself dead with Ünal’s pistol and the prosecutor’s office concluded that there was a lack of grounds for legal action and closed the investigation on 5 March 2020.

Cracking down on the HDP. Protecting your own

In Turkey soldiers are the fighters of the Turkish nation, defenders of the Turkish homeland and heroes-per-definition. The PKK is in armed conflict with the Turkish state since the 1980s and designated a terrorist organization by Turkey.

In Turkey almost every criticizer or government opponent is publicly declared a PKK sympathizer, a Gulenist (since the coup of June 2016), or jailed. Turkey is one of the top-jailers of journalists, civil society leaders and opposition politicians. AKP-MHP government proxies and sympathizers are to be defended at all cost – for which almost the whole Turkish media landscape, the judicial system and intelligence services have been brought under control and made instrumental to the AKP-MHP government. All have been purged of alleged opponents.

Turkey sees the political party HDP as the political extension of the PKK and has cracked down on the HDP since peace talks between the Turkish state and the Turkey terrorist-designated PKK broke down in 2015. HDP leader Selahettin Demirtaş and many more members, including HDP MPs, were jailed on charges of “membership of a terrorist organisation”, HDP mayors and governors were removed, and Turkish authorities have initiated a smear and slander campaign against the HDP. And with success. The number of HDP Members of Parliament in 2020 alone was reduced by three.

Why the HDP has not been outlawed like its predecessor parties by the Turkish state is not known. One of the motives cited by analysts is that the AKP-MHP government wants to keep the HDP open as a stick to scare off other opposition parties, “if you oppose us too much, this is what will happen to your party.”

“Tuma”

The “Tuma” Interior Minister Soylu is referring to is Syriac Member of Turkish Parliament for the HDP Tuma Çelik. MP Tuma Çelik is an outspoken opponent of AKP denialist policies and advocated national ethnic recognition of Syriacs, their culture, right to own schools, and recognition of the Sayfo Genocide of 1915 – as he addressed Turkish Parliament in mid-June. This didn’t go unnoticed and he got into several fights with AKP Members of Parliament in the past – although physical fights are not uncommon in Turkish Parliament.

AKP’nin vekili, HDP Mardin Milletvekili Tuma Çelik’e yumruk attı!https://t.co/r6dCb7lHTG pic.twitter.com/m6EXyCKGjk

— Fersude (@GazeteFersude) January 8, 2019

A salient detail in the relationship between Syriac MP Tuma Çelik and Minister is that the two got in a fierce altercation in December 2018 in the parliamentary committee interior affairs.

End-of June, MP Çelik was formally accused of sexually assaulting a woman and procedures to lift his immunity as a Member of Parliament are at an advanced stage. MP Tuma Çelik denies the rape allegations, speaks of a slander campaign against his person, and has defended himself before the parliamentarian committee which decides to propose to Turkish parliament lifting MP Tuma Çelik’s immunity.

Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu (L). Plaintiff (M) and AKP candidate for parliament Adile Gurbuz (R).The sexual assault allegations are something for an independent judge to decide over under the Rule of Law and the principle of the presumption of innocence.

Under the assumption that most TV station in Turkey are directly or indirectly censured by the AKP-MHP government, then Turkish authorities did accompany the Tuma Çelik case with a smear and slander campaign against his person and the HDP. The case was broadcast widely in a negative and convicted-like manner on Turkish pro-government Turkish TV channels – which means almost all Turkish TV channels- and Çelik’s reputation was smeared upfront without a judicial decision.

Moreover, after a hearing with the parliamentarian committee deciding over the Syriac MPs immunity, the woman accusing Çelik of rape openly met with Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu and took photos together with the woman’s lawyer Adile Gurbuz from Batman. Lawyer Adile Gurbuz holds a prominent place on the AKP candidate list for parliament. Pro-government newspaper YeniSafak wrote on the meeting that after the parliamentary commission meeting, Interior Minister Soylu “listened to the sexually abused woman” and she thanked Minister Soylu for his support to protect her and her family.

Such a meeting with a plaintiff in a pending case is highly unusual as it might give the impression of interference from above and might influence the judiciary. The duty of Minister of Interior is to be impartial and keep the same distance to all citizens, especially during a pending case. Hence, the Soylu-plaintiff-Gurbuz photo and the case were much discussed on social media and some commentators believe it to be a conspiracy.

HDP Millet vekilli Toma Çelik tarafından tecavüze uğradı iddia edilen Derya Akmen’in içişleri Bakanı Süleyman Soylu‘nun yanında ne işi var.
Ve
Neden bu kadının avukatlığını AKP’nin dördüncü sıra milletvekili adayı yapıyor
Yoksa Kumpası Süleyman Soylu‘mu organize etti. pic.twitter.com/eWTKsXRCm2

— VartoLu (@ozer_v) July 31, 2020