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A freed Iraqi Yazidi woman, who was held as a sex slave by the Islamic State (IS) group, came face-to-face with her tormentor on Iraqi television, demanding an explanation for her suffering before collapsing to the ground.

Ashwaq Hajji Hamid had been kidnapped and sold to IS when she was separated from her family and taken to Syria at the age of 14.

IS captured the Yazidi ancestral heartland of Sinjar in northern Iraq in August 2014, taking thousands of women as sex-slaves.

Five years after she was freed, Ms Hamid was given the chance to confront the man who raped and tormented her several times a day.

The confrontation was broadcast on Iraqi television station Al-Iraqiya, where she recalled how IS member Abu Humam pulled her by her hair before he began raping and abusing her.

“I did not expect them [IS] to rape us because I was only 14. But they restrained us with iron handcuffs and violently raped us,” she said.

Ms Hamid said she was taken along with hundreds of other women to Mosul where she was repeatedly abused by Humam.

uring the confrontation, Ms Hamid began to cry.

She said since she was not in a position to punish him, she wanted the Iraqi Government to deliver due justice for those who have suffered like her.

“Even if I was allowed to kill him, I would not want to get his filth on my hands, but I demand that the government do us right — it’s not just me, because who knows how many Yazidi girls he raped after me.”

During the confrontation, she asked Humam to look up and face her, but he remained fixated with his head hung low and eyes to the ground.

“You destroyed my life,” she continued.

“You robbed me of all my dreams. I was once held by IS, by you, but now you will feel the meaning of torment, torture and loneliness. If you had any feelings, you would not have raped me when I was 14, the age of your son, the age of your daughter,” she added.

Al-Iraqiya TV also interviewed Humam about his treatment of Ms Hamid to which he unapologetically said: “She did not want it so I beat her to make her agree to the rape.”

Thousands of members of the minority Yazidi sect from Iraq were forced into sexual slavery by the jihadists when they surged across the border in 2014 and seized swathes of territory.

More than 3,000 other Yazidis were killed in an onslaught the United Nations later described as genocidal, which prompted the first US air strikes against IS.

Thousands more fled on foot, and many of them remain displaced.abc

Evasive answers by the Trump Organization to questions by four U.S. Democratic senators on the U.S. President Donald Trump’s business dealings in Turkey, in fact, have drawn more attention to the case, Courthouse News reporter Adam Klasfeld said on Thursday.

Senate Democrats Tom Udall, Tammy Duckworth, Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal, in a letter sent on Tuesday, requested Trump Organization Executive Vice President Jill A. Martin to disclose information on the Trump family’s real estate in Istanbul.

The Trump Organization has a license agreement with Turkey’s Doğan Group for a twin tower in Istanbul, and Trump himself said in a 2015 interview during the presidential campaign that the arrangement presented “a little conflict of interest” should he be elected.

The Trump Organization did not provide any information on the total dollar value of income earned by the company related to its licensing agreement and the terms for Turkish entities to terminate its licensing agreement with the Trump Organization, both requested by U.S. senators in their Oct. 22 letter, Klasfeld said.

Senators also asked what authority the Turkish government has to remove the Trump name from the buildings or impact the licensing agreement and whether the Trump Organization received any messages from the U.S. government.

But, the Trump Organization ignored these question in the answers they provided, Klasfeld said.

Trump has been under harsh criticism for being more than accommodating towards Erdoğan’s requests, such as the withdrawal the U.S. troops that clear the way for the Turkish incursion into northeast Syria and blocking sanction attempts by the U.S. Congress against Turkey and Erdoğan.Ahval news

Turkey has prosecuted more than 1,500 attorneys, arresting 599 of them, on terrorism charges, since a 2016 failed coup, according to a newly released report from The Arrested Lawyers initiative.

As of Sept. 1, 321 lawyers had been sentenced to a total of 2,022 years in prison for terrorist group membership or disseminating terrorist propaganda.

Turkey survived a coup attempt in 2016, after which a two-year-long state of emergency was declared by the government, which accuses the faith-based Gülen movement of orchestrating the abortive putsch.

The Gülen movement strongly denies any involvement.

The state of emergency measures are still at work in the country’s judiciary as mass detention continue.

“Lawyers have particularly been targeted due to the identity or affinity of their clients,” the report said.

Dozens of lawyers who were defending Gülen-linked suspects have been arrested due to alleged Gülen ties in the last three years.

The report also said Turkey undermined the independence of bar associations with a presidential degree that gives the Turkish president the authority to dismiss chairpersons or board members of bar associations.

Still, more than 50 bar associations on Monday boycotted a ceremony marking the opening of the new judicial year at the presidential palace, stating that attending the event would jeopardize their independence.

The report criticized the Justice Ministry for preventing judges and prosecutors who were dismissed by government decrees during the state of emergency from working as private lawyers.

Turkey has sacked more than 4,000 judges and prosecutors since the failed coup.

One hundred eighty-four intellectuals have released a joint statement denouncing the recent removal of three Kurdish mayors from office by the Turkish government, the Artı Gerçek news website reported.

In a controversial move on Monday, the Interior Ministry removed the mayors of Mardin, Van and Diyarbakır in southeastern Turkey, claiming they had links to the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The mayors were elected from the ranks of the Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in the March 31 local elections.

In a written statement the intellectuals said the removal of the mayors was not only a coup against them but also against the people who elected them and their right to elect and be elected.

“This is a new stage in [Turkey’s] descent into a full dictatorship. This is a lock placed on the tongue, will and freedom of all of us. If this lock is not unlocked altogether, it will take Turkey to a dead end,” said the intellectuals, adding that they do not recognize the government’s decision to remove the mayors and that they oppose tyranny.

The intellectuals called on everyone all around the world who believes in democracy, the will of the people, the right to elect and be elected, freedom of expression and law to raise their voice against what has been done to the three mayors.

The signatories of the statement include Can Dündar, a government-critical journalist currently living in exile; human rights activist and lawyer Eren Keskin; Professor Cengiz Aktar; Professor Baskın Oran; and Cem Özdemir, former co-chair of the Greens in Germany who has Turkish roots.

A commission set up by the Turkish government to look into complaints from individuals who were adversely affected by government decrees during a state of emergency (OHAL) in Turkey has so far rejected 77,600 applications out of the 126,200 it has processed since its establishment in summer 2017, according to a written statement from the commission on Thursday.

The commission said it is continuing to assess the remaining 41,900 applications. The total number of applications adjudicated by the commission thus far is 84,300.

The commission said the applications include those from students whose scholarships were cancelled, retired military officers who lost their rank and employees of workplaces that were closed down by the government.

The commission ruled for the reopening of 28 organizations that were closed down by government decrees, including dormitories, foundations and some TV stations.

Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) government declared a state of emergency in the aftermath of a failed coup on July 15, 2016 that remained in effect until July 19, 2018.

During the state of emergency, the AKP issued a number of government decrees, known as KHKs, through which thousands of academics, politicians, teachers, doctors, officials, businessmen, artists and journalists were purged due to their real or alleged connections to the Gülen movement, which is accused by the government of being behind the failed coup. The movement strongly denies any involvement.

The commission accepts complaints regarding dismissal from the civil service, jobs or organizations; dismissal from university and the loss of student status; the closure of associations, organizations, unions, federations, confederations, private health institutions, private education institutions, private institutions of higher education, private radio and TV organizations, newspapers and magazines, news agencies, publication houses and distribution channels; and the loss of retiree ranking through government decrees.

Individuals whose applications have been rejected by the OHAL commission have the right, within 60 days, to file a case at the Ankara 19th or 20th administrative courts for cancellation of the decisions of the OHAL commission.

US President Donald Trump described Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as “a very good friend” and said the tentative ceasefire in northeastern Syria was “holding very well,” before inviting several Republican senators who have been critical of Turkey to join him at a White House meeting with the Turkish leader on Wednesday, according to The Washington Post.

“We’re having a very good discussion,” Trump told reporters as Senators Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, James E. Risch, Rick Scott and Joni Ernst sat on couches before him and Erdoğan in the Oval Office.

“The purpose of this meeting is to have an American civics lesson with our Turkish friends,” said Graham, who last month called on Trump to “stand up to Erdogan” and called him a “thug.”

Erdoğan’s visit comes amid smoldering tensions over Turkey’s offensive against US-allied Syrian Kurds after Trump announced last month he would withdraw US troops from the region, a move that has engendered bipartisan criticism on Capitol Hill.

But Trump rebuffed lawmakers who had called on him to cancel the invitation, saying Erdoğan has lived up to an Oct. 17 agreement negotiated with Vice President Mike Pence to limit Turkey’s incursion into Syria and allow it to create a long-coveted buffer zone at least 20 miles deep inside Syria. Turkey’s military operations have displaced an estimated 100,000 people in northern Syria from their homes, according to the United Nations.

“I want to thank the president for the job they’ve done,” Trump told reporters earlier Wednesday as he welcomed Erdoğan to the White House. He added that the Syrian Kurds, longtime partners with the United States in fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the region, “seem very satisfied” with the ceasefire deal.

“The president and I are very good friends. We have been for a long time — almost from Day 1,” Trump said. “I understand the problems that they’ve had — including many people from Turkey being killed, in the area that we’re talking about. And he has to do something about that also. It’s not a one-way street.”

The two leaders were expected to discuss the security situation in the region as well as efforts to put relations on a better track after Turkey purchased a sophisticated Russian missile defense system, the S-400. US law mandates sanctions for such purchases from an “adversary,” and the administration has already cut Turkey’s participation in the international consortium building the new F-35 fighter jet.

Senior administration officials said that an offer to circumvent those punishments and also implement a new $100 billion trade deal — both of which Trump had offered Erdoğan last month in a failed effort to prevent the Turkish military operation in Syria — were still possible if Turkey complies with the ceasefire agreement and the situation in northeastern Syria stabilizes.

“We think we can bring trade up very quickly,” Trump said. Erdoğan, in brief remarks through an interpreter, thanked Trump but did not offer details of his goals of the meeting, citing a joint news conference with the two leaders later in the day.

Graham, a Trump confidant, initially had criticized Trump’s decision to withdraw all US forces from Syria — about 1,000 troops — as “the biggest mistake of his presidency.” But he later congratulated the president on the ceasefire deal and Trump’s subsequent agreement to leave about 600 troops in northeastern Syria.

Ernst and Scott said in advance of the meeting that they planned to confront Erdogan on Turkey’s purchase of the S-400 missile system.

“I want to make sure he understands that we’re gonna have to implement sanctions,” said Scott, a vocal critic of Erdoğan. “The president doesn’t have a choice. And that’s not gonna be good for Turkey.”

Trump has held off on imposing congressionally mandated sanctions on Turkey for the S-400 purchase, while canceling its participation in the F-35 program.

Administration officials, citing Turkey’s importance as a NATO and regional ally, have said Trump would propose a workaround that would allow Turkey to keep the S-400s as long as it does not deploy them, and purchase F-35s. “I project that we will work something out,” Trump said at the meeting with the senators.

The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) called on supporters to join a protest before the meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on Nov. 13.

Erdoğan will arrive in Washington on Wednesday to discuss with Trump the ongoing situation in northern Syria as well as other issues that have soured relations between the two allies, including potential sanctions to be imposed on Turkey’s state-run Halkbank for evading U.S. sanctions on Iran.

The Turkish president’s meeting with Trump will take place after the U.S. House of Representatives last week approved a resolution recognising the mass deportation of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire in 1915 as genocide.

The protestors will gather at Lafayette Park across the White House, according to a poster shared by the ANCA on Twitter.

The call for protest accuses Erdoğan of a long list of issues including destroying democracy, desecrating churches, invading Syria, killing Kurds and denying genocide.

Turkey launched a military offensive against Kurdish-controlled territories in northern Syria on Oct. 9, after Trump announced that he had decided to withdraw American troops in the region. The offensive ended in nine days as Turkey made two separate agreements with the United States and Russia for the withdrawal of Kurdish militia in the region 30 km south from the border.

The ANCA teamed up with Greek-American, Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac-American, Kurdish-American, Arab-American and other human rights groups for the protest on Wednesday.

U.S. Representative Dan Crenshaw has called on his colleagues to join him in asking the State Department and the Washington, DC Metropolitan Police Department “to ensure President Erdoğan and his security detail are aware of and understand that Americans enjoy First Amendment rights to assembly and speech,” the ANCA reported.

The letters to be sent separately by members of the U.S. Congress to the State Department’s Chief of Protocol and the Metropolitan Police Department will refer to the incident when “during past visits by the Turkish President, Americans exercising their First Amendment rights were assaulted by pro-Erdoğan protesters and President Erdoğan’s security detail.”

In May 2017, 15 members of Erdoğan’s security team were accused of beating peaceful protesters in Washington. U.S. prosecutors dropped charges against 11 of the 15 security guards in the incident that launched national headlines, sparking outrage among members of the U.S. Congress.ahvalnews