RedHack hacks Turkish family ministry website on Mother's Day

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

The hacked page linked to RedHack's new Twitter account.

The socialist RedHack group today took down the Turkish Ministry of Family and Social Policy's website, to mark Mother's Day and draw attention to violence against women in Turkey and armed conflicts around the world.

The original contents of the website were replaced by a message that read, "Only mothers die in every war. Do not torment the mothers, dear sirs, do not make them upset."

The hacked page showed a collage that was made up of the picture of a woman murdered by her husband, a mother crying over her fallen son's grave at a military cemetery, an Israeli soldier facing a woman and her two daughters, and a picture of the "Saturday Mothers," an organization that seeks to shed light on unsolved murders and disappearances of civilians in Turkey in the 1990s.

A message was written below a picture with the headline "Happy Mother's Day," which gave detailed information on violence and sexual abuse against women in Turkey. RedHack said the Turkish family minister, Fatma Şahin, was more concerned with regulating soap operas and TV shows, instead of finding solutions to women's issues.

The group also called for an end to what it called the "dirty war that makes mothers cry" and an end to "the disrespectful attitude of 'Take your mother and leave,'" a statement made by Turkish Prime Minister Erdoğan after a villager had asked him to help farmers and said, "Our mothers are crying," a Turkish expression meaning that one is in great pain or suffering.

"Mothers of the world, unite against the politics of blood," the message concluded.

The hacked page also included a footnote addressed to the specially authorized prosecutor Hakan Yüksel, who is oveerseeing a probe into RedHack, launched after the group hacked into Ankara police's database and acquired secret information. The message read "Prosecutor Hakan, what's up? We're going to end up being buddies if we keep this up ;) We're hacking from prison, what do you say to that? ;)"


RedHack claims prosecutors have charged innocent people for being members of the group, and demanded their release, in a previous attack on Turkey's interior ministry website.