“HUMAN RIGHTS REFORMS SLOWED” AI SAYS
BÝA, Turkey
May 24 2006
Torture and ill-treatment continued to be reported, with those detained
for ordinary crimes particularly at risk. Law enforcement officers
continued to use excessive force in the policing of demonstrations;
four demonstrators were shot dead in November”.
BÝA (London) – “During 2005 some of the world’s most powerful
governments were successfully challenged, their hypocrisy exposed
by the media, their arguments rejected by courts of law, their
repressive tactics resisted by human rights activists. After five
years of backlash against human rights in the “war on terror”, the
tide appeared to be turning” says international rights organization
Amnesty International (AI) in its 2006 Report.
“Nevertheless, the lives of millions of people worldwide were
devastated by the denial of fundamental rights” AI exposes and adds:
“Human security was threatened by war and attacks by armed groups
as well as by hunger, disease and natural disasters. Freedoms were
curtailed by repression, discrimination and social exclusion”.
Documenting human rights abuses in 150 countries around the world
the report also Gives considerable space to the situation in Turkey.
Below is the Turkey Section of the report.
TURKEY
REPUBLIC OF TURKEY
Head of state: Ahmet Necdet Sezer
Head of government: Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Death penalty: abolitionist for all crimes
International Criminal Court: not signed UN Women’s Convention and
its Optional Protocol: ratified
The Council of Ministers of the European Union (EU) formally opened
negotiations for Turkey’s membership of the EU.
Practical implementation of reforms intended to bring Turkish law
into line with international standards slowed in 2005. The law
provided for continuing restrictions on the exercise of fundamental
rights. Those expressing peaceful dissent on certain issues faced
criminal prosecution and sanctions after the introduction of the new
Turkish Penal Code.
Torture and ill-treatment continued to be reported, with those detained
for ordinary crimes particularly at risk. Law enforcement officers
continued to use excessive force in the policing of demonstrations;
four demonstrators were shot dead in November.
Investigations of such incidents were inadequate and law enforcement
officers responsible for violations were rarely brought to justice.
Human rights deteriorated in the eastern and south-eastern provinces
in the context of a rise in armed clashes between the Turkish security
services and the armed opposition Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Background
In June, the new Turkish Penal Code (TPC), Code of Criminal Procedure
and Law on the Enforcement of Sentences (LES) entered into force. The
laws contained positive aspects, with the TPC offering greater
protection from violence to women.
However, the TPC in particular also included restrictions to the right
to freedom of expression. Human rights defenders in Turkey also raised
objections to the punishment regime for prisoners envisaged by the LES.
A revised draft of the Anti-Terror Law was being discussed by a
parliamentary sub-commission at the end of the year; human rights
groups had commented critically on earlier drafts. In September Turkey
signed the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture and
Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. In October
the Council of Ministers of the EU formally opened negotiations for
Turkey’s membership of the EU.
Freedom of expression
A wide range of laws containing fundamental restrictions on freedom
of expression remained in force. These resulted in the prosecution
of individuals for the peaceful expression of opinions in many areas
of public life.
The pattern of prosecutions and judgments also often demonstrated
prosecutors’ and judges’ lack of knowledge of international human
rights law. In some cases comments by senior government officials
demonstrated an intolerance of dissenting opinion or open debate and
seemed to sanction prosecution.
Article 301, on the denigration of Turkishness, the Republic, and the
foundation and institutions of the state, was introduced in June and
replaced Article 159 of the old penal code. Article 159 and Article
301 were frequently applied arbitrarily to target a wide range of
critical opinion. Journalists, writers, publishers, human rights
defenders and academics were prosecuted under this law.
Among the many prosecuted were journalist Hrant Dink, novelist Orhan
Pamuk, Deputy Chair of the Mazlum Der human rights organization Sehmus
Ulek, and academics Bask¹n Oran and ±brahim Kabo¬lu . An international
academic conference on perceptions of the historical fate of the
Armenians in the late Ottoman period, to be held in May at Bosphorus
University in Istanbul was postponed after comments made by the
Minister of Justice, Cemil Cicek, which fundamentally challenged the
notion of academic freedom by portraying the initiative as treacherous.
The conference eventually took place at Bilgi University in
September. However, in December legal proceedings under TPC Articles
301 and 288 were initiated against five journalists who reported on
attempts to prevent the conference. A further restriction on freedom
of expression remained in the broad restrictions on the use of minority
languages in public life.
Frequent prosecutions for speaking or uttering single words in
Kurdish continued to be brought under Article 81 of theLaw on
Political Parties. In May the Court of Appeal ordered the closure
of the teachers’ union, Egitim-Sen, on the grounds that a clause in
its statute defending the right to “mother tongue education” violated
Articles 3 and 42 of the Constitution which emphasize that no language
other than Turkish may be taught as a mother tongue.
Egitim-Sen later revoked the relevant article of its statute in order
to avoid closure.
* In October the prosecutor initiated a case to closedown permanently
the Diyarbakir Kurdish Assocation (Kurd-Der) on various counts,
including the decision to adopt a “non-Turkish” spelling of the word
Kurdish in the association’s name and statute, and provisions in
the association’s statute defending the right to Kurdish language
education. The association had previously been warned to adjust the
disputed elements in its statute and name. Provisions in the Press
Law restricting press coverage of cases under judicial process were
used in an arbitrary and overly restrictive way to hinder independent
investigation and public comment by journalists on human rights
violations. These provisions were also used to hinder human rights
defenders. Legal proceedings were begun against the Chairperson
of the Diyarbak¹r branch of the Human Rights Association (HRA),
Selahattin Demirtas, and Mihdi Perincek, HRA Regional Representative,
in connection with a report they co-authored with others on the
killing of Ahmet Kaymaz and Ugur Kaymaz (see below).
The indictment alleged that the report violated Article 19 of the
Press Law, undermining the prosecutor’s preparatory investigation into
the killings, despite the fact that the authors had no access to the
contents of files on the case which, by court order and for reasons of
security, were unavailable for inspection. The first hearing against
the two began in July.
Torture and ill-treatment
Torture and ill-treatment by law enforcement officials continued
to be reported, with detainees allegedly being beaten; stripped
naked and threatened with death; deprived of food, water and sleep
during detention; and beaten during arrest or in places of unofficial
detention. Reports of torture or ill-treatment of individuals detained
for political offences decreased. However, people detained on suspicion
of committing ordinary crimes such as theft or for public disorder
offences were particularly at risk of ill-treatment.
Reports suggested that there were still many cases of law enforcement
officials completely failing to follow lawful detention and
investigative procedures and of prosecutors failing to ascertain
that law enforcement officials had complied with procedures. Police
also regularly used disproportionate force against demonstrators,
particularly targeting leftists, supporters of the pro-Kurdish
party DEHAP, students and trade unionists (see Killings in disputed
circumstances below). Often those alleging ill treatment, particularly
during demonstrations, were charged with resisting arrest while their
injuries were explained away as having occurred as police attempted
to restrain them.
* In October in Ordu, five teenagers aged between 15and 18 were
detained at the opening of a new shopping centre. The five reported
being beaten, verbally abused, and threatened and having their
testicles squeezed while being taken into custody and while in custody
at the Ordu Central Police Station. They were later released.
Two reported that they were stripped and threatened with rape. Three
were not recorded as having been in police detention. One was
subsequently charged with violently resisting arrest.
Beyond the alleged ill-treatment, which was documented in medical
reports and photographs, other irregularities in the handling of
the detained teenagers by the police and prosecutor demonstrated a
failure to follow legal procedures at any point from the moment of
detention onwards
* In March, in the Sarachane area of Istanbul, demonstrators gathering
to celebrate International Women’s Day were violently dispersed
by police, beaten with truncheons and sprayed with pepper gas at
close range.
Three women were reportedly hospitalized. The scenes drew international
condemnation. In December 54 police officers were charged with using
excessive force; senior officers were not charged, but three received a
“reprimand” for the incident.
Impunity
Investigations into torture and ill treatment continued to be marked by
deeply flawed procedures and supported suggestions of an unwillingness
on the part of the judiciary to bring perpetrators of human rights
violations to justice. An overwhelming climate of impunity persisted.
* In April, four police officers accused of the torture and rape with
a truncheon of two teenagers, Nazime Ceren Salmanoglu and Fatma Deniz
Polattas, in 1999 were acquitted.
More than six years after the judicial process had begun and after
the case had been delayed more than 30 times, a court in Iskenderun
acquitted the officers due to “insufficient evidence”. Lawyers for
the young women announced that they would appeal against the decision.
The two women had been sentenced to long prison terms on the basis of
“confessions” allegedly obtained under torture.
* Fifteen years after the death of university student Birtan Altinbas,
the trial of four police officers accused of killing him continued
in the Ankara Heavy Penal Court No. 2.
Birtan Altinbas died on 15 January 1991 following six days in
police custody, during which he was interrogated on suspicion of
being a member of an illegal organization. The case, which received
international condemnation and was widely reported in the Turkish
press, demonstrated many aspects of the flawed judicial process.
* The trial of four police officers charged with killing Ahmet
Kaymaz and his 12-year-old son Ugur Kaymaz on 21 November 2004 in
the K¹z¹ltepe district of Mardin began in February. The four officers
on trial were not under arrest and were still on active duty. It was
significant that senior officers responsible for the police operation
during which the two individuals were killed were excluded from the
investigation and not charged, supporting the view that in cases of
this kind prosecutors rarely examined the chain of command.
Fair trial concerns
The continuing inequality between prosecution and defence and the
influence of the executive on the appointment of judges and prosecutors
prevented the full independence of the judiciary. While from 1 June
detainees enjoyed the right to legal counsel and statements made in
the absence of lawyers were not admissible as evidence in court,
few prosecutors in the new Heavy Penal Courts (which replaced the
State Security Courts in 2004) attempted to review ongoing cases
where statements were originally made without the presence of legal
counsel and where defendants alleged that their testimony had been
extracted under torture.
Little effort was made to collect evidence in favour of the defendant
and most demands of the defence to have witnesses testify were not met.
Imprisonment for conscientious objection
Conscientious objection was not recognized and no civilian alternative
to military service was available.
* In August, Sivas Military Court sentenced conscientious objector
Mehmet Tarhan to four years’ imprisonment on charges of “disobeying
orders” and refusing to perform military service. He was a prisoner
of conscience.
Killings in disputed circumstances
On 9 November in the Semdinli district of Hakkâri, a bookshop was
bombed, killing one man and injuring others. Three men were charged
in connection with the incident. The alleged bomber was subsequently
revealed to be a former PKK guerrilla turned informant and his
alleged accomplices were two members of the security services, with
identity cards indicating that they were plain-clothes gendarmerie
intelligence officers.
Subsequently, as the prosecutor carried out a scene-of-crime
investigation, the assembled crowd was fired upon from a car, resulting
in the death of one civilian and injury of others. The prosecutor’s
crime scene investigation was postponed. A gendarmerie specialist
sergeant was charged with disproportionate use of force resulting
in death.
AI called upon the government to establish an independent commission
of inquiry to investigate all dimensions of these incidents including
allegations of direct official involvement. During subsequent protests
at the events in Semdinli, three people in the Yuksekova district of
Hakkâri and one person in Mersin were shot dead by police.
During 2005 approximately 50 people were shot dead by the security
forces, over half of them in the south-eastern and eastern provinces.
Many may have been victims of extra judicial executions or the use
of excessive force. “Failure to obey a warning to stop” was a common
explanation provided by the security forces for these deaths.
At least two individuals were alleged to have been assassinated by the
PKK. On 17 February, Kemal Sahin, who split from the PKK to found an
organization allied with the Patriotic Democratic Party of Kurdistan,
was killed near Suleimaniyeh in northern Iraq. On 6 July, Hikmet Fidan,
former DEHAP deputy chair, was killed in Diyarbakir.
An organization calling itself the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons claimed
responsibility for a bomb attack in July on a bus in the Aegean town
of Ku§adas¹ that killed five civilians.
266 Amnesty International Report 2006 TUR
Violence against women
Positive provisions in the new TPC offered an improved level of
protection for women against violence in the family. The new Law on
Municipalities required municipalities to provide shelters for women
in towns with populations of more than 50,000 individuals.
Implementation of this law will require adequate funding for the
establishment of shelters from central government and full co-operation
with women’s organizations in civil society. Further efforts were
needed to ensure that law enforcement officials, prosecutors and the
medical profession were fully versed in the still little-known Law
on the Protection of the Family.
Official human rights mechanisms
Official human rights monitoring mechanisms attached to the Prime
Ministry failed to function adequately and had insufficient powers to
report on and investigate violations. The work of the Prime Ministry
Human Rights Advisory Board, encompassing civil society organizations,
was obstructed and the Board became effectively inactive. Moreover,
in November, former Chair Ibrahim Kaboglu, and Baskin Oran, a board
member, were prosecuted for the contents of a report on the question of
minorities in Turkey commissioned by the Board and authored by Baskin
Oran. The Provincial and Human Rights Boards, set up by the Human
Rights Presidency and also attached to the Prime Ministry, failed
to conduct adequate investigations of human rights violations. Draft
legislation on the creation of an ombudsman failed to advance.
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