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Complaints of torture on rise in Turkey's Kurdish southeast

The Turkish government no longer sees the need to conceal torture, especially of Kurdish women in the southeast of the country.

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Turkish anti-riot police officers try to detain a woman demonstrating during a protest against the replacement of Kurdish mayors with state officials in three cities, in Besiktas district in Istanbul, Turkey, Aug. 24, 2019 — OZAN KOSE/AFP via Getty Images

Picture this: A woman is home alone in Diyarbakir province in Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeast. At 5 a.m., 100 policemen from counterterrorism and special forces units storm the apartment, instructing the neighbors to stay inside and not communicate with anyone. Then they sledgehammer the door and unleash two police dogs to attack Sevil Rojbin Cetin. But that is only the beginning. 

Cetin is an activist in women’s movements and a former Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) mayor, elected in 2014 and replaced by a government appointee in 2016.

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