Resisting women: We showed May Day cannot ban 

2021-05-04 15:44:54


	 

	Habibe Eren

	 

	ISTANBUL - Mısra, who used self-defense against the police when she was detained with torture, said; “We ran towards the police, we saw how scared they were”, while Nergis said; “I have edema on my chin, head and bruises on my face. The torture I was subjected to while performing the hospital procedures was not reported by the doctors.”

	 

	255 people were detained in the police attack against those who went out from all sides in Istanbul to celebrate May Day in Taksim and commemorate those who were killed. Despite prohibitions and obstacles, revolutionaries, women, and laborers stubbornly and resolutely marched to Taksim. Mısra Sapan and Nergis Şen, members of the Revolutionary Anarchist Federation (DAF) who marched from Kazancı Slope and Mecidiyeköy to Taksim, were among those detained after being tortured with rear- handcuffing.

	 

	Mısra and Nergis spoke about the police attack they were subjected to and the action they carried out despite all the obstacles.

	 

	‘We have shown that May Day cannot ban’

	 

	The image of self-defense against the police when he was taken into custody was engraved in memories, Mısra said that May Day was banned on the pretext of an epidemic. Stating that the government brought a “complete closure” due to the recent increasing actions and power of the revolutionaries, Mısra said: “May Day is the day of the struggle of the oppressed, workers, bread, justice and freedom. We said: "May Day cannot be banned" and we showed this. We were in the streets on May Day. We carried out demonstrations in three different regions in two different cities.”

	 

	‘We ran towards the police, we saw how scared they were’

	 

	Mısra stated that she was among the group marching from Mecidiyeköy to Taksim and said that they encountered a police blockade 10 minutes after they started the march. Emphasizing that the state does not want the images of resistance to be revealed, Mısra said: "That is why they applied detention to every revolutionary who appeared, to everyone who resisted."

	 

	Mısra explained the police violence she was subjected to with the following words: “They attacked us while they were moving towards Taksim. When we saw the police, we ran towards them, there were about six-seven people. When we ran, the police stopped, they could not do anything. We have seen how afraid the state is of revolutionaries. Then they tried to blockade us. Their efforts to prevent the recording of the moment of torture were aimed at concealing the torture inflicted on revolutionaries. We continued the resistance when they blockaded us. They detained us by lying on the ground and making rear-handcuffing. After applying reverse handcuffs to a friend, they closed his/her eyes with a mask and took to the custody bus. They tortured women by pulling their hair."

	 

	She was injured in an eye and arm

	 

	Nergis Şen, who was injured in her eye and arm in the police attack while walking from Mecidiyeköy to Taksim, pointed out that they were on the streets despite all the prohibitions and said: “As DAF, we carried out actions in different places. I was detained in Kazancı Slope, where many revolutionaries lost their lives. When we wanted to carry out nine people there, we were blocked and we were detained by violence."

	 

	Reminding the circular issued by the General Directorate of Security affiliated to the Ministry of Interior before May Day because "recording audio and video recordings violates the privacy of private life", Nergis said: “But despite all the prohibitions, the tortures recorded by press workers have come out. Most of these tortures started on the street and continued in the vehicle after being detained. My face was injured, I was thrown to the ground like a sack in the vehicle in rear-handcuffing. Although I fell to the ground, on the pretext of not getting up, the police tortured me six-seven times by pressing their knees on different parts of my head. I have edema on my chin and head, bruises on my face. While the hospital procedures were being carried out, the torture I was subjected to was not reported by the doctors."

	 

	Nergis added that they would file a criminal complaint through their lawyers against the torture they were subjected to.