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Turkey: Anti-Terror Law used against
peaceful activists
8.6.2006
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Turkey’s Reform Process at Risk as Three Kurdish
Activists Go on Trial
(New York, June 7, 2006) – The trial tomorrow
of three Kurdish activists on anti-terrorism charges
after they attempted to stage a peaceful protest
near the Iraq border calls into question the Turkish
leadership’s commitment to human rights reforms,
Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to Turkish
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
To demonstrate that his government stands by the
reform process, Prime Minister Erdoğan must ensure
that Ibrahim Güçlü, Zeynel Abidin Özalp and Ahmet
Sedat Oğur are released.
These three Kurdish activists are scheduled to go on
trial tomorrow in the eastern city of Diyarbakir.
They were arrested on May 2 as they prepared to walk
to the border of Iraq to peacefully protest the
recent killings of civilians by security forces in
southeastern Turkey and express their concern about
tensions between the Turkish government and the
Kurdish-led administration in northern Iraq. |
Photo: Zeynel Ozalp, Sedat Ogur and Ibrahim Guclu in
their yard at Diyarbakır : HRW |
The men are being charged under the Anti-Terror Law
for “making propaganda for the PKK,” a charge that
is all the more ironic in light of the fact that
Güçlü has repeatedly and publicly condemned violence
by the PKK (the Turkish acronym for the Kurdish
Workers’ Party, a prominent illegal armed opposition
group). All three are officials of Kurt-Der, a
Kurdish association that Turkish authorities closed
last month for conducting its internal business in
the Kurdish language.
The detention and trial of these activists reflect a
broader deterioration of Turkey’s human rights
record in recent months, Human Rights Watch said.
The Turkish leadership must reverse this negative
trend and reaffirm its commitment to human rights
reforms, underway since 1999 and driven partly by
Turkey’s quest for European Union membership.
“This trial of peaceful Kurdish activists on
anti-terrorism charges is a litmus test of Turkey’s
commitment to reform,” said Holly Cartner, Europe
and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
“Anything short of releasing these men would serve a
severe blow to the already frail reform process.”
Human Rights Watch expressed strong concern about
the disproportionate use of force by police dealing
with protestors, particularly in the southeast,
where 19 people have been killed in demonstrations
and disturbances since November. The Turkish
government must conduct swift investigations into
the widespread allegations of torture and
ill-treatment of people detained during violence
that erupted after funerals in Diyarbakir of PKK
militants killed by Turkish security forces.
Draft amendments to the Anti-Terror Law are an
ominous sign of the retrograde trend currently
prevailing in Turkey, Human Rights Watch said. The
proposed amendments would facilitate prosecutions
like the one initiated against Güçlü, Özalp and Oğur,
and would also remove safeguards for detainees that
have significantly forced down the rates of torture
and ill-treatment in Turkish police stations.
“These recent safeguards against torture constitute
perhaps the single most significant human rights
achievement in Turkey’s reform process so far,” said
Cartner. “Now even this achievement is under serious
threat.”
Political violence and the state’s violent response
to it have sharply increased in Turkey since late
last year, and there are troubling indications that
elements within the military and armed opposition
groups may be deliberately undermining the reform
process.
Even the modest progress in human rights and the
rule of law have brought clear benefits to ordinary
Turkish citizens. But at the same time, government
reforms such as easing restrictions on freedom of
expression and partially recognizing the linguistic
rights of minorities are removing the traditional
raisons d’être of Turkey’s powerful security
establishment and armed opposition groups like the
PKK.
“Proponents of violence within the state and armed
opposition groups like the PKK feel threatened by
the reform process,” said Cartner. “Both camps are
committing grave human rights violations in an
effort to thwart the reform process and re-establish
their authority.”
Human Rights Watch urged Prime Minister Erdoğan to
show firm leadership in defending and carrying
through the reform program.
“Prime Minister Erdoğan needs to affirm that he
stands by the reforms of the past years and to
present a detailed, confident picture of where the
process is going,” said Cartner.
To clearly show his renewed commitment to reform,
Erdoğan must ensure that Güçlü, Özalp and Oğur are
released, abandon the proposed changes to the
Anti-Terror Law, initiate urgent inquiries into the
use of lethal and disproportionate force against
protestors in Diyarbakir and the widespread
allegations of torture during the arrests that
followed, and remove the expression laws that curb
open debate.
Background
In October, the European Union opened negotiations
for full membership with Turkey, a decision based on
the country’s progress on reforms. Just one month
later, gendarmerie intelligence officers were
captured by local people after a bomb had been
thrown into a bookshop in the southeastern town of
Şemdinli, killing one man and wounding a number of
others. The gendarmes were found to have another
bomb identical to that used in the attack, and other
apparently incriminating material.
When the prosecutor who indicted the officers
proposed to explore whether the attack had been
committed on orders from above, the military high
command blocked the inquiry, and the prosecutor was
expelled from his post and from the legal
profession. A senior police officer who suggested
the military might have been aware of the attack was
also promptly removed from his post.
Street disturbances broke out in the wake of the
Şemdinli bombing and most recently in March after
funerals of PKK militants in Diyarbakır. Security
forces responded with patent disregard for human
life. They killed 19 people, including four children
under the age of 10.
Armed opposition groups also escalated their violent
activities, and civilians paid the price. Kurdistan
Freedom Falcons (TAK) claimed responsibility for a
bomb that exploded in an Istanbul internet café in
February, killing the owner and injuring 15 other
people, including three children. On May 3 a bomb in
Hakkari wounded 21 people, including 11 children.
Authorities in the region blamed the PKK for the
attack and it has not denied responsibility. On
April 2 youths rioting in Istanbul following the
funeral of PKK militants threw Molotov cocktails at
a city bus, causing a crash that killed three women.
Related Material
HRW Letter to the Turkish Prime Minister
Letter, June 7, 2006
Turkey: To Combat Torture, Monitoring Police
Stations Is Key
Press Release, March 6, 2006
Turkey: Pamuk Trial Tests Commitment to Free Speech
Press Release, December 8, 2005
Hrw.org
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey) wikipedia
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