TGEU Countries: Turkey Bihter, According to research carried out in 2014 by Red Umbrella 14 with trans-women sex workers, 42 per cent of a trans-woman survivor of extreme violence all respondents who experienced physical violence did not report these incidents to the police or to a prose- “When I was waiting for my friend even approach me. I got good help from the people around cutor’s office. The reasons for not doing so were a lack at night on a street close to my me. I was taken to the hospital by ambulance. The police of trust in the justice system, fear of being targeted by house, a black car approached me at prevented witnesses from providing statements. Even the police and the belief that they would be victimised high speed. A man got out of the back door, crime scene investigators did not come to the scene. If the again. Of the incidents that were reported, only 11 per came up to me and asked for a racket. I refused, and police had made an immediate announcement, they could cent resulted in cases in which perpetrators received an he grabbed my collar and threatened me. He said, “I will have caught the perpetrators. Instead, they did not even appropriate sentence. In the other cases, either the po- kill you”. I did not have the opportunity to escape. He provide any information to other police officers. I spent 10 lice ignored the complaint or judges acquitted the per- grabbed my hair. He and other people from the car began hours in surgery at the hospital, and the Esat Police Sta- petrators or decreased their sentences. to assault me, and when they were about to stab me in tion did not come to take my statement for three days. the head with a butcher knife, I covered my head with my After 20 days at the hospital, I went to the police. They hand and was severely injured. said they were investigating the incident. Then I went to the prosecutor’s office. They are always sloppy. I even What is your occupation? Video by Amnesty International Turkey,   featuring sex workers from Turkey. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Wlfh2QIeuo0 + 98 + Sex workers are the solution not the problem Sex work, HIV and human rights. Video by the International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe, featuring sex workers from Turkey. Available at: https://youtu.be/IpuuqKpMgt0 Bystanders called the police and ambulance. The police went to the Prime Minister’s Office, but everyone told me came immediately because the police station was very to wait. I provided information regarding the black car to close by. It took 15 minutes for the ambulance to arrive. the police station, but they didn’t care. In the hospital, I The police did not remove the people around and did not was not exposed to any discrimination or mistreatment”. In many cases, police officers who are perpetrators of the same police officers charged the victims with “re- violence file complaints against trans people in order to sisting the police” and “insulting the police”. The charges deter the victims from filing complaints against them. were prosecuted, and three trans sex workers received For instance, three trans sex workers from Ankara were sentences of a few months’ imprisonment, while their attacked by several police officers on a street, and they complaints were officially ignored and none of the po- filed complaints. Immediately after their complaints, lice officers were disciplined or charged. 15 + 99 +