Police stop prominent rights activist Eren Keskin at airport, ask her why she is in Bodrum

Police on Feb. 11 stopped prominent human rights lawyer and activist Eren Keskin, who has been repeatedly prosecuted over several decades, at the Bodrum Airport on Feb. 11, citing “suspicious circumstances” and asked her why she had traveled from Istanbul. “I have gone through this in many places before, but it was weird to go experience this in Bodrum as well. The police later told me, 'I will call you once our research is over,'” Keskin told Gazete Duvar.

Thursday February 11 2021 07:20 pm

Ferhat Yaşar / DUVAR

Eren Keskin, a lawyer and human rights defender, on Feb. 11 traveled by plane from Istanbul to the southwestern province of Muğla to assist a victim of rape in her legal case.

She was however stopped at the Bodrum Aiport by a police officer, who asked her “What are you doing here?”

“He later said, 'There is a suspicious circumstance here, can I look at your identity card?' I asked him, 'What is the suspicious circumstance?' to which he said: 'I cannot say anything about it.' He got hold of my identity information,” Keskin told Gazete Duvar.

The police further asked Keskin where she would stay at and why she traveled to Muğla. “I told him, 'I will meet the prosecutor about a case file.' I have gone through this in many places before, but it was weird to go experience this in Bodrum as well. The police later told me, 'I will call you once our research is over,'” Keskin said.

Keskin has been threatened, attacked, hauled before the courts over a hundred times, convicted of numerous offenses, and even jailed.

She is known to be a vocal critic of the Turkish government’s draconian crackdown on human rights and says she refuses to be silenced.