Amnesty International Report 1996 - Turkey

Hundreds of prisoners of conscience were held during the year. Torture of political and criminal detainees in police stations continued to be routine, and there were at least 15 deaths apparently resulting from torture in police custody. At least 35 people "disappeared" in security force custody and scores of people were killed in circumstances that suggested that they had been extrajudicially executed by members of the security forces. For the 11th successive year there were no executions, but death sentences were passed. Armed opposition groups were responsible for deliberate and arbitrary killings. State of emergency legislation remained in force throughout the year in 10 southeastern provinces, where the conflict between government forces and armed members of the secessionist Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan (PKK), Kurdish Workers' Party, claimed 2,000 lives, including those of civilians, during the year. In October the Turkish parliament approved an amendment to Article 8 of the Anti-Terror Law, under which most prisoners of conscience were held. Under the amended law, "separatist propaganda" remained an imprisonable offence. However, the phrase "irrespective of the methods and aims and ideas" was removed. Hundreds of prisoners of conscience were held during the year. Some were detained for short periods before being released, while others were serving prison sentences. Those serving sentences under Article 8 of the Anti-Terror Law were retried following the amendment of the law in October. More than 100 were released, but others remained imprisoned. Ibrahim Aksoy, president of the Demokrasi ve Degisim Partisi, Democracy and Change Party, was convicted under Article 8 because of his writings and speeches. He was arrested in October to serve a term of six months' imprisonment. Reports of torture by police and gendarmes (soldiers carrying out police duties in rural areas) were commonplace in many parts of Turkey, particularly in the major cities and the southeast. There were reports of more than 15 deaths in custody, apparently resulting from torture. Detainees held under the Anti-Terror Law, which covers non-violent as well as violent political offences, can be held for up to 30 days in incommunicado detention. Sükrü Tas reported that he was tortured during interrogation at Istanbul Police Headquarters in January. According to his account, he was held naked and blindfold in a damp room smelling of excrement and suspended by his arms which were bound behind his back. The police also beat him on the soles of the feet, pulled his hair, squeezed his testicles and attempted to rape him with a truncheon. The Chief of Istanbul Police denied that Sükrü Tas had been tortured but a medical report issued by the Forensic Medicine Institute the day after his release recorded bruising on the thigh and several "stripe-like" marks. The Istanbul Treatment Centre of the Turkish Human Rights Foundation also found evidence consistent with Sükrü Tas' allegations of torture. Children were also allegedly tortured. In some cases the allegations were corroborated by medical evidence. In July, 13-year-old Tayfun Kzrs reported that during interrogation at Ankara Police Headquarters he was hit on the feet and back with truncheons and subjected to electric shocks. The Forensic Medicine Institute found cuts on his arms and shoulders, swelling on his left ankle, and bruising and swelling about his left ear. There were many reports of ill-treatment of prisoners by police or gendarmes who entered prisons during hunger-strikes and other protests by political prisoners. Prisoners were also reportedly beaten while travelling to or from court hearings. In September, three political prisoners – Yusuf Bag, Ugur Sarzaslan and Turan Kilinç – were reportedly beaten to death by gendarmes and Special Team members who forced entry into a barricaded wing at Buca prison near Izmir in western Turkey, where conditions are notoriously harsh. At least 35 people were reported to have "disappeared" in the custody of police or gendarmes. Mehmet Sirin Maltu, a Kurdish farmer, was detained in January by members of the security forces who arrived at his village, Yanbölük, near Kozluk in Batman province, in a convoy which included an armoured vehicle. He was brought back to the village in custody once on the following day when his family home was searched with a metal detector. Released detainees reportedly later saw him in custody at Batman Gendarmerie Headquarters, but his detention was not registered with the local prosecutor. His family never saw him again. Hasan Ocak was allegedly detained by police in Istanbul in March and seen by a fellow detainee at Istanbul Police Headquarters. When his family examined photographs in the archives of the Forensic Medicine Institute, they discovered that his body had been found on vacant ground in the Beykoz district and later buried as that of an unidentified person. Shortly afterwards, the body of Rzdvan Karakoç, wanted by the police and missing since February, was also identified in photographs at the Forensic Medicine Institute. His body had been found on the same patch of ground as that of Hasan Ocak and also buried without informing his family. There were nearly 100 political killings, many of which may have been extrajudicial executions. Among the victims were people who had previously been arrested on political charges or had served sentences for political offences, and people involved in organizations which challenged government policy towards the Kurdish minority, such as Halkzn Demokrasi Partisi (HADEP), People's Democratic Party, a mainly Kurdish political party. Hacz Sait Macir, a HADEP member, was shot dead in January by two armed men at his café in Adana. His wife reported that her husband had frequently been harassed by police and that the week before the attack Hacz Sait Macir had been taken to Serinev Police Station, where police officers threatened to kill him. A young man and two young women – Mustafa Selçuk, Seyhan Ayyzldzz and Sirin Erol – were killed in April by police who raided a building in the Batzkent district of Ankara, the capital. The police claimed that the three were armed members of the illegal organization DHKP-C, Revolutionary People's Communist Party-Front (formerly Devrimci Sol, Revolutionary Left), and that they were unavoidably killed in the course of an armed clash. Legal counsel for Mustafa Selçuk's family were denied access to the scene of the killings and to his autopsy. Delegates from the Turkish Human Rights Association (HRA) and the Progressive Jurists' Association examined the building and reported that the distribution of bullet holes and bloodstains suggested that the three had been shot dead at close range after being made to lie on the floor. A formal complaint accusing the police of unlawful killing was rejected by the Ankara Chief Prosecutor in July. The Minister for Human Rights, Algan Hacaloglu, was reported to have described the killings as "an execution without trial". Twenty-two people were shot dead by police during disturbances in Istanbul in March. Following an armed attack on a local café, possibly by members of right-wing groups, members of the Alawite religious minority marched on a local police station. Video footage which shows police under attack from demonstrators throwing sticks, stones and other missiles also clearly shows police officers shooting directly into the crowd. In July, 20 police officers were indicted for unlawful killing and wounding, but in November their trial was suspended pending approval of the prosecution by the Istanbul provincial governor. For the 11th successive year, no judicial executions were carried out. However, the death penalty remained in force and a number of death sentences were imposed during the year. Armed PKK members were responsible for at least 60 deliberate and arbitrary killings. In January, two Iranian Kurds, Asker Tahiroglu and Zeya Nazzm, were abducted and apparently interrogated under torture by PKK "Metropolitan Teams" before being shot dead. Their bodies, which were later found on waste ground near Istanbul, bore deep cuts and their ear lobes had been cut off. Village guards (villagers armed and paid by the government to fight the PKK) captured by the PKK during the course of attacks were frequently executed, in some cases together with their extended families. In June armed PKK members raiding the Olukbasz Plateau, in the Osmaniye region of Adana, reportedly abducted and shot dead Ali Niyazi Bila, Ali Yokus and Aliye Yokus. In August armed PKK members abducted and killed Zülküf Kiliç and his two young brothers, Kadir Kiliç, aged 16, and Halim Kiliç, aged 13, from the village of Aga in the Çat district of Erzurum. The DHKP-C was responsible for the strangling of Latife Ereren in March at Istanbul's Sagmalczlar Prison, where she was remanded in custody charged with membership of the organization. It appeared that she was killed because she was believed to be an informer. In June the DHKP-C also killed Hasan Levent in Istanbul. He had reportedly given information to the police about the whereabouts of an alleged member of the organization who was later killed in a police raid. The armed Islamist organization ibda-c, Islamic Raiders of the Big East-Front, reportedly claimed responsibility for a number of attacks in which civilians were killed and wounded, including a bomb attack on the owner of a number of brothels in Istanbul, in which the owner's driver, Necati Akça, and guard, Mehmet Urhan, were killed. Amnesty International published a number of reports during the year including Turkey: A policy of denial in February; Turkey: Mothers of the "disappeared" take action in May; and Turkey: Unfulfilled promise of reform in September. Throughout the year the organization appealed for the release of prisoners of conscience and urged the government to initiate full and impartial investigations into allegations of torture, extrajudicial executions and "disappearances". In February an Amnesty International delegate observed a hearing in the trial of six officials of the HRA at Diyarbakzr State Security Court. The human rights activists faced charges of membership of the PKK, but Amnesty International believed that the real reason for their prosecution was their human rights work (see Amnesty International Report 1995). Their trial was continuing at the end of the year. The Turkish Government continued to refuse to admit an Amnesty International researcher into Turkey (see Amnesty International Report 1995). In June an Amnesty International delegate was detained by the Turkish authorities and held for two days in incommunicado detention before being deported. Amnesty International protested at the treatment of its delegate but the Turkish Government failed to respond or give any explanation for the deportation. Amnesty International continued to urge the UN Commission on Human Rights to take action against the gross violations of human rights in Turkey.