The house of 78 year old Yemlihan Yıldırım was raided by Gendermerie Special Forces teams on February 20 in the Lice district of Diyarbakır. The military personnel coming with 7 helicopters, searched the house of Yemlihan Yıldırım (78) and his wife Zinnet Yıldırım (66).   

 

The gendermerie who could not find Mehmet Yıldırım, their son who has a warrant for his arrest, threatened the mother Zinnet Yıldırım with a gun and beat the father Yemlihan Yıldırım. 

 

Family, whose house was raided on January 21 and February 21 applied to Diyarbakır branch of Humans' Rights Association (İHD) for legal aid. 

 

Father Yıldırım said: "They deployed the soldiers with 7 helicopters at 6.30 on Thursday near our house. They came around 8.30, approached our house and called my wife. Then they called me. They told us that they will search our place. T allowed them to come in and I told them to take off their shoes. Their commander did not let the 2 soldiers who were going to take off their shoes. They asked me if I was a Muslim. I told them I was Armanian. I said: "Do you know what it means to be a Muslim. You walked into my house with boots and messed the place up. Is this what a Muslim do? DO your job and dont insult us.' He slapped me in the face. My hat fell off. When I tried to pick it up he stroke again. Then he started hitting me time and time again.They threatened me with arrest. They have been searching our house like this for 3 weeks. I applied to IHD to make this stop."

 

THEY THREATENED TO KILL MY WIFE

 

Father Yıldırım said: "They hit my wife on her chest 3 times during search. They said: "I'll kill you, where is your son, I'll burn down your house and kill your son'. My son is married with 4 children. They are living with us."

 

Stating that this unlawful approach they were exposed to has nothing to do with the operation in the region, father Yıldırım stated that they do not want to be treated like this.