TURKEY: MURDER CASES UNDERSCORE TROUBLES WITH JUDICIAL, POLICE REFORM
Yigal Schleifer

EurasiaNet, NY
Jan 16 2008

The brutal murders of three Christians in a Bible publishing house
last April in the central Turkish city of Malatya shocked many Turks.

The country has continued to be scandalized by reports that have come
to light amid the trial of the five people charged in the case. Among
the more sordid allegations is that police officers may have colluded
in the killings, and that investigators have mismanaged the criminal
probe.

The killings of the Christians — a German and two Turks — occurred
only a few months after the Istanbul murder of Hrant Dink, an outspoken
Armenian journalist. Dink’s killing, the first anniversary of which
will be commemorated on January 19, has also been surrounded by
accusations of police and prosecutorial impropriety. [For background
see the Eurasia Insight archive].

The cases have led to renewed concerns about the continuing influence
of rogue nationalist elements in Turkey’s security forces. They have
also helped refocus attention on the conduct of the country’s police
force and judiciary. Recent reports produced by international human
rights groups argue that law-enforcement structures in Turkey are in
urgent need of reform.

"Torture, ill treatment and killings continue to be met with persistent
impunity for the security forces in Turkey," Amnesty International said
in a report released last summer. "The investigation and prosecution
of serious human rights violations committed by officers of the police
and gendarmerie are flawed and compounded by inconsistent decisions
by prosecutors and judges. As a result, justice for the victims of
human rights violations is delayed or denied."

Dink’s murder on an Istanbul sidewalk was quickly followed up by
reports that top police officials had been informed months before
about a plot by Turkish nationalists to kill him. Meanwhile, a video
showing several policemen proudly posing with the murder suspect –
a 17-year-old from the Black Sea city of Trabzon – after he was caught
soon surfaced after the murder.

In the Malatya case, press reports have indicated that the suspects,
also young nationalists, had phone conversations with police officials,
and possibly even with a prosecutor from Istanbul, in the months before
the murders. Prosecutors have not followed up on these reports. The
defendants’ trial began in late November.

According to various media accounts, police in Malatya are purported to
have destroyed videotapes recorded in the hospital room of one of the
accused, who injured himself during the crime. "The security forces
and the judiciary here are protecting each other by not conducting
a detailed investigation," Husnu Ondul, head of the Human Rights
Association (IHD), a Turkish watchdog group, told the English-language
Today’s Zaman on December 8.

"The common point among all these similar incidents is this
protection," Ondul added.

Says Volkan Aytar, a researcher at the Turkish Economic and Social
Studies Foundation (TESEV), an Istanbul-based think-tank: "There is
a huge lack of transparency and a huge lack of accountability in the
Turkish security services."

In response to the questions swirling around the Malatya case,
Turkish Interior Minister Besir Atalay announced in early December
that two senior police officials would be conducting a probe. "Be
sure of this: as a ministry, we will increase our transparency,"
the minister told reporters.

Observers say that as shocking as the allegations of misdeeds in the
Dink and Malatya cases have been, the fact that they are coming to
light so quickly in itself represents a kind of step forward. "There
have been a lot of political murders and crimes in the past in Turkey,
but it was always very difficult to find out who did it," says Hakan
Bakircioglu, a lawyer who is monitoring the Dink murder trial on
behalf of the slain journalist’s family.

"These two cases might be the first time we can find the murderers and
maybe not catch, but at least touch, the members of state organizations
who might be behind the crimes," Bakircioglu added.

The Turkish police force has already taken some unilateral steps
towards reform. Under one program, about 250 police officers over
the last decade have been sent to study in the United States and
European Union, where they obtained advanced degrees in criminal
justice. Upon their return, it was envisioned that this corps of
foreign-trained officers would play a key role in fostering a more
transparent culture within the broader Turkish police force.

"There is no doubt that there has been an improvement in the last
10 years," says Onder Aytac, a lecturer at Turkey’s national police
academy in Ankara.

"But there is a kind of fighting between the old system and the new
system," he continued. "There are some people in the police force
who are trying to go along the old way."

Turkey’s judiciary, today seen as one of the pillars maintaining
Turkey’s secular system, has also made some reform efforts. Over the
last few years, more than 9,000 judges and prosecutors have undergone
European Union-sponsored training concerning European human rights
law. Turkey is a candidate for EU membership and is a member of the
Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights.

Still, a recent survey of judges and prosecutors conducted by TESEV
found that a majority still believe that the interests of the state
take precedence over those of the individual. Of those surveyed, 51
percent said they believe human rights could pose a threat to state
security. Only 28 percent said they didn’t. Meanwhile, 63 percent
said they did not believe that Turkey’s EU-inspired reform process
was benefiting the country.

"At the end of the day, we need judiciary reform and police reform,"
says TESEV’s Aytar. "If that doesn’t happen, then we will have a
very static bureaucracy that will not be able to adapt itself to the
realities of a modern Turkey that is on its way to the EU."

Editor’s Note: Yigal Schleifer is a freelance journalist based in
Istanbul.