'Girl with red foulard' joins PKK
A young woman in Antalya, who faces up to 98 years in prison for participating in last yearâs Gezi Park protests, has joined the outlawed Kurdistan Workersâ Party (PKK), her mother confirmed in a statement to daily Hürriyet on June 20.
AyÅe Deniz Karacagil spent four months in custody and became publicly known as âthe girl with the red foulardâ after police and prosecutors linked the color of her scarf to socialism during her interrogations.
Her mother, Nuray ErçaÄan, has confirmed a report by daily Yeni Ãzgür Politika, which claimed that Karacagil âdecided to join the Kurdish independence struggle in prison by going to the mountains with the name âDestan Yörükâ as her alias.â
âGoing to the mountains,â is a phrase used in Turkey to refer to those who join the PKKâs armed fight in mountainous areas. The outlawed groupâs headquarters and military camps have been based in the Kandil Mountains, located along the Iranian border with Iraq, for nearly 20 years.
âShe called me on my birthday. âDear mother, I love you so much, Iâm an artist of freedom. Donât be sad,â she told me, as if saying goodbye,â ErçaÄan said, adding that she supported any decision taken by her daughter.
âTurkey has lost my child. People want to create their own justice in this country where there is no justice,â she also said, stressing that she still worried about her daughterâs safety, considering the young people who were killed during the Gezi Park protests.
Karacagil, who was released pending trial on Feb. 7, faces between 24 and 98 years of prison with four of her friends for charges of âmembership of a...
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