Video of police officer ‘beating’ disabled child sparks outcry in SE Turkey

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Video footage has emerged purportedly showing a Turkish police officer manhandling a Kurdish boy with disabilities and firing into the air after a group of children were caught breaking lockdown rules in Mardin province, southeast Turkey in late April. 

The footage, published by a Kurdish journalist, appears to show a plainclothes police officer in Nusaybin running after a group of children, before grabbing a boy by the arm and pulling him towards a stationary police vehicle.

The officer can then be seen crouching to meet the boy at eye level while aggressively grasping both his arms. Turkish media outlet Duvar English claims the 8-year-old has a mental disability and was allegedly beaten by the officer. 

Turkey’s General Directorate of Police released a statement on Sunday addressing the April 24 incident, claiming the children were “hurling stones at police vehicles.”

The statement confirmed the officer had fired his weapon into the air but did not address allegations he manhandled the boy. 

“An investigation has been launched against the policeman who intervened by shooting in the air and did not immediately report it to his superior, after some children hurled stones at police vehicles,” read the statement. 

The policeman has been “dismissed”, it added.

A statement from the mayor’s office mirrored police claims that the children had instigated the incident, according to Turkish channel NTV, but denounced the policeman’s behavior as both “inappropriate and unacceptable.”

Turkey’s Association for Combating Child Abuse and Neglect called on Saturday for an “immediate” investigation of the incident and for “action to be taken against the policeman.”

Opposition leaders have also reached out to the child’s parents to share their support. Mithat Sancar, co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), spoke with the child’s father on Sunday, and claimed the incident was an attack on “Kurdish identity” – framing the incident as part of a systemic mistreatment of Kurds by Turkish authorities.

“This mentality that incites and spreads such hatred among security forces in the Kurdish areas is that of the government,” Sancar told the boy’s father, according to an HDP statement. “This hatred gets its power from the government’s mentality and is aimed at the Kurdish areas and children.”

Sancar accused the police of “covering up” the incident, noting that it only issued a statement on the April 24 incident once the video was published more than two weeks later. 

Claims that the children threw stones at police vehicles “cannot justify such hatred,” Sancar added. 

Ahmed Davutoglu, the leader of the newly-established Future Party, also contacted the family on Sunday. He did not publicly condemn the incident, but said he would assign the head of his party’s office in the city to “support” the family needs, reported T24. 

“For us, the most important subject is our children. We believe that there should not be discrimination between children and all of them must be seen the same way. We build the future for them as they are our future,” Davutoglu reportedly told the boy’s father.   

Speaking to the pro-Kurdish Mezopotamya news agency on Sunday, the boy’s parents said their son had been psychologically “ruined” by the incident.

“My kid went out to play in the garden outside our building. When he was taken by the police, he almost lost his soul out there. He was scared to death. His mental state is ruined and he could not come to his senses for three days after the incident,” the father, named as Mehmet E, told the agency.

Vehice, the boy’s mother, told the agency her son returned home pale and “hardly breathing.”

“I was so scared to see him like that…. This is not an act any human being is supposed to commit,” she said.

Turkish provinces are currently on lockdown to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus. Residents are urged to stay indoors.