Turkey detains nurse over hair-braiding video in support of SDF
Authorities say the nurse’s social media post amounted to terror propaganda, while critics argue that her symbolic protest falls under freedom of expression as tensions over Syria spill into Turkey’s fragile peace process.
ANKARA — Turkish police detained a nurse in Istanbul on Sunday after she posted a video on social media braiding her hair in solidarity with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, according to her lawyer and several news reports.
Details: The nurse, identified only by her initials I.A., was taken into custody in Istanbul after being accused of disseminating terror propaganda, Turkey’s Demiroren News Agency reported on Monday.
The nurse’s lawyer, Gencer Demirkaya, confirmed that his client was detained, describing the move as unlawful. “It appears that the detention was carried out solely because of the sharing of a video showing braided hair,” he told the independent news platform Bianet. “As a lawyer, I can say this is clearly an act that should fall under freedom of expression.”
Officials from Turkey’s Health Ministry said on Sunday that they had launched an administrative investigation into the nurse's actions.
Background: The video came as part of a broader campaign that has spread across social media over the past week. Women film themselves braiding their hair in protest of what they describe as Syrian forces’ violence against Kurdish women fighters in Syria.
The campaign was triggered by the circulation of a video from Raqqa that purportedly shows a fighter aligned with Syrian government forces displaying a severed braid he says was taken from a dead member of the all-female Women’s Protection Units, a branch of the SDF. The authenticity of the footage, the identity of the victim and the circumstances surrounding the killing have not been independently verified, but the imagery nonetheless sparked widespread outrage and symbolic protest.
The protests come against the backdrop of Syrian government forces' rapid advance into SDF-held areas in northeastern Syria, where they have captured large swathes of Arab-majority territory following clashes earlier this month.
Turkey openly supports the Syrian government's campaign. Ankara equates the SDF with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged an armed insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984 for Kurdish self-rule inside the country and is designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
Why it matters: The braid protest comes amid fragile peace talks between Turkey and imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan. In May, the militant group announced it would disarm and dissolve itself, heeding a March call from Ocalan declaring an end to the armed struggle. Ocalan has been serving a sentence of life without parole in a Turkish prison since 1999.
While the peace talks remain formally intact, the Syrian military's advances and clashes with the SDF have stirred unease among Turkey’s Kurds, adding new pressure points to an already fraught process. Over the past week, dozens of Kurds took to the streets across several provinces in Turkey in protest of the clashes.
The pro-Kurdish DEM Party, Turkey’s third-largest party and the largest political movement representing the country’s Kurds, denounced the clashes, with senior DEM figures including Pervin Buldan, Meral Danis Bestas and Aysegul Dogan posting videos of themselves braiding their hair.
Her xeleka porên me berxwedan a me hêz dike…
Saçlarımızın her halkasıdirenişimizi güçlendiriyor…#JinJiyanAzadi #KeziyenMeTırsaWe pic.twitter.com/fssWkfK87T— Pervin BULDAN (@PervinBuldan) January 22, 2026
The Turkish government, in turn, criticized the protests. Omer Celik, spokesperson for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party, described the actions on Monday as “a campaign by those who cannot break away from terrorist organizations and are trying to exploit our Kurdish citizens.”
The SDF’s weakening has also injected new momentum into the peace talks, as Ankara has explicitly tied progress at home to the dissolution of the group across the border.
Turkish officials have long argued that any PKK disarmament would be meaningless if the People’s Protection Units, the backbone of the SDF and regarded by Turkey as a PKK offshoot, continues to hold weapons in Syria.
“For more than a year, the government has presented the SDF’s integration with Damascus as the biggest obstacle to the process,” Tuncer Bakirhan, DEM co-chair, told Reuters on Jan. 19. “What needs to be done is clear: Kurdish rights must be recognized in both Turkey and Syria, democratic regimes must be established and freedoms must be guaranteed,” he added.
Know more: The braid protests have spread beyond Turkey. In the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Halabja Governor Nucse Nasih braided her hair in solidarity, while dozens of women gathered in Erbil to braid each other’s hair, AFP reported on Sunday.
