by Steve Sweeney
International editor

FEARS have been raised that a number of women are being tortured in police custody after they were detained in the Turkish capital Ankara during today’s protest demanding action over the disappearance of Gulistan Doku.

Security officials swooped and attacked the women as they gathered in the Turkish capital to mark a year since the Kurdish student went missing, amid fears she has been murdered.

Jin News journalists Habibe Eren and Oznur Deger and freelance journalist Eylul Deniz Yasar and Fatman Kilicarslan from the Ankara Women’s Platform were among those detained.

A source told the Star they had spoken to one of those being held and said she sounded OK but believed that the women may have been tortured by police.

“A 21–year-old woman is missing and you [the Turkish state] are hiding her killer,” the source told the Morning Star. “Why are they hiding it? We want to know where Gulistan is today. Gulistan Doku has been missing for a year.

“Her family has a simple and innocent request. They want to be able to bury their daughter and mourn.”

Ms Doku disappeared without a trace in the central city of Dersim a year ago. Her family have been searching for her ever since but have accused Turkish police of a cover-up.

A day before she went missing her  former boyfriend Zainal Abakarov had forcibly tried to drag her into his car, an act substantiated by numbers of witnesses. 

The authorities ruled out his involvement, claiming that Ms Doku had killed herself, but this has raised fears of a cover-up — his stepfather is a police official. Mr Abakorov has since gone into hiding.

Speaking at a demonstration in Dersim yesterday, her mother Bedriye Doku said that in the days before her daughter’s disappearance, she had sent messages saying that she was afraid.

But she said that all she wanted was some answers as to the fate of Ms Doku.

“I am Gulistan’s mother. My heart has been torn apart for a year. I want my daughter to be found,” she said.

The British-based campaign group Journalists for Democracy in Turkey & Kurdistan called for the immediate release of those in custody and slammed the Turkish state for its violent attacks on women.

“Once again women are brutally attacked by an authoritarian regime which does all it can to protect the male perpetrators of violence.

“All the family and supporters of Gulistan Doku want is justice, and to know what happened to her. Her family have suffered a painful loss which is made worse by the attitude of an authoritarian anti-woman government.

“We demand the immediate release of the journalists taken into custody, justice for Gulistan Doku and an end to the brutal treatment of women by the Turkish state. Enough is enough,” the group’s statement said.