Ekrem Yaşlı, who was speaking in Kurdish with his wife in a hospital in the northwestern city of Çanakkale, was attacked by another patient’s relative.
BOLD – Ekrem Yaşlı was accompanying his wife, who cannot speak Turkish, during her treatment in the hospital after an eye surgery she had. The attacker reportedly left the room saying “This is the Republic of Turkey”, and then came back with a soda bottle striking Yaşlı with it.
The attack on the elderly man came after seasonal worker Şirin Tosun, who was attacked in Adapazarı for speaking Kurdish and then shot in the head, passed away.
Describing the assault against him, Yaşlı said, “I didn’t say anything to him. He said something like, ‘Where did you come from?’ First, I did not get what he said. And then I was sitting in the armchair, and for a while, we stared at each other. ‘Why are you looking at me?’ he said. I said I wasn’t looking at him, and I also said, ‘Is it forbidden to stare?’ He had been hiding a soda bottle behind him. ‘Didn’t I tell you not to look at me,’ he said. Then he hit me on the head twice with the soda bottle saying ‘this is the Republic of Turkey’.
Yaşlı, who described his attacker as a young man in his 20s, filed a complaint to the police. The victim of the attack said that he would file another complaint to the prosecutor as well.
Human Rights Association (IHD) officials stated that they will follow up on legal proceedings regarding the incident. IHD also underlined that people have been living together in peace in Çanakkale, and such racist attacks will not be tolerated.