On January 16, around 04:00 a.m., police SWAT teams, political police agents suported by gendarmerie units raided the homes of members of the People’s Council in the village of Tekebasi (Arabic name Cilli) Samandag district, Hatay Province southern Turkey.
The house raids presented by the bourgeois media as “an operation against an illegal armed organization” woke up early in the morning the families of several of the village’s residents. Subsequently, police officers and gendarmes realize that they have stormed the wrong address. The next home they raid was the one of the Ozcelik family. During the raid and sinister appearance of police officers, 70-year-old Edibe Ozcelik got sick after a brief struggle for life, the elderly woman dies as a result of a heart attack.
Police subordinates to Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, who is known for his hatred of the People’s Front, with their assaults are terrorizing residents of an entire village and causing the death of an innocent elderly woman.
Because of the actions of the police, a 70-year-old mother who, according to her relatives, did not have serious health problems lost her life. Edibe Ozcelik was buried earlier this week in the cemetery of Tekebasi village.
Meanwhile, according to lawyers from the People’s Law Bureau (People’s Front lawyer organization), a total of 4 People’s Front members were detained by police in the period January 17-20, with 3 of them being released on January 19, and 1 was released on January 21.
The latest wave of repressions against the People’s Front in the southern province of Hatay is related to the foundation of the People’s Council about two years ago in the village of Tekebasi. The People’s council, which is a grassroots organization, is fighting to address the most pressing problems of local residents, including the problem of water supply, road infrastructure and the mafia gangs involved in drug trafficking and the forced inclination of girls and young women to prostitution. To solve these problems, the people of Tekebasi, together with members of the People’s Front, founded the People’s Council (in Turkish Halk Meclisi), through which they were able to solve the water supply problem that the bourgeois parties promised to solve in every election campaign. However, the fascist oligarchy will do everything in their power to destroy the People’s Council so that it does not become a “bad example” for the inhabitants of other villages in the region, which is located on the border with Syria.
The article is based on information provided by News Agency Gercek gercekhaberajansi.org
