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Human Rights Watch World Report 2012:
Turkey 23.1.2012
By HRW - Events of 2011 |
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January
23, 2012
As the Justice and Development Party (AKP)
government focused on promoting Turkey’s regional
interests in response to the pro-democracy Arab
Spring movements, human rights suffered setbacks at
home. The government has not prioritized human
rights reforms since 2005, and freedom of expression
and association have both been damaged by the
ongoing prosecution and incarceration of
journalists, writers, and hundreds of Kurdish
political activists.
After winning a third term in office with a historic
50 percent of the vote in the June 12 general
election, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s AKP government
again pledged to embark on a complete revision of
the 1982 constitution. Rewriting the constitution to
further human rights has been a recurring political
discussion since the 2007 general election.
The government’s “democratic opening,” announced in
summer 2009 to address the minority rights of Kurds
in Turkey, did not progress. Ground-breaking
negotiations between the state and the armed,
outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) to reach a
settlement to end the ongoing conflict collapsed. In
July violence escalated with the PKK stepping up
attacks on the military and police, and the Turkish
government in August launching the first aerial
bombardment of PKK bases in Iraqi Kurdistan since
2008. Among a rising number of attacks on civilians
were two on September 2: an Ankara bombing by the
Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK)—a PKK-linked
group—which killed three, and a PKK attack on a car
that killed four women in Siirt.
The non-resolution of the Kurdish issue remains the
single greatest obstacle to progress on human rights
in Turkey.
Turkey provided camps for around 7,500 Syrian
refugees who had fled the Syrian government’s
crackdown on demonstrators. Access to camp residents
was restricted, as was the residents’ movement.
Freedom of Expression,
Association, and Assembly
While the last decade has demonstrated momentum in
Turkey for increasingly open debate on even
controversial issues, Turkey's laws, prosecutors,
judges, and politicians still lag behind. Turkey's
overbroad definition of terrorism still allows for
arbitrary imposition of the harshest terrorism
charges against individuals about whom there is
little evidence of logistical or material support
for terrorism or of involvement in plotting violent
activities. Prosecutors frequently prosecute
individuals for non-violent speeches and writings.
Politicians sue their critics for criminal
defamation. Courts convict with insufficient
consideration for the obligation to protect freedom
of expression. A comprehensive review of all
existing laws that restrict freedom of expression is
overdue.
Particularly concerning was the March arrest and
imprisonment on terrorism charges of two
journalists, Ahmet Şık and Nedim Şener, and of
academic Büşra Ersanlı and publisher Ragip Zarakolu
in October. Şık and Şener are charged with aiding
and abetting the Ergenekon organization, a criminal
gang charged with coup-plotting against the AKP
government. The sole evidence against Şık and Şener
is their non-violent writing, in Şık’s case
consisting of an unpublished manuscript. At this
writing the two had spent eight months in pre-trial
detention, awaiting their November trial.
Ersanlı and Zarakolu will face trial in 2012 for
alleged links with the Union of Kurdistan
Communities (KCK/TM), a body associated with the PKK
leadership. They were arrested during a clamp-down
on the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party’s (BDP)
legal political activity,www.ekurd.net
which began in April 2009 and intensified in 2011.
Hundreds remain in pre-trial detention and thousands
are on trial on terrorism charges after waves of
arrests of officials and activist members of the BDP
(which won 36 independent seats in the June 2011
general election) for alleged KCK links.
There was little progress in the main Diyarbakir KCK
trial of 153 defendants, which included six BDP
mayors and a human rights defender held in pre-trial
detention for 22 months. Defendants insisted on
conducting their defence in Kurdish but this was
rejected by the court.
In August the government revised a plan to impose
obligatory filtering packages on all internet users
and delayed implementation of optional filtering
packages, following forceful public opposition in
Turkey and by international bodies, including the
OSCE and the Council of Europe. However, the
practice of blocking an estimated 15,000 websites in
Turkey—most of which have pornographic content but
some of which are restricted for pro-Kurdish or
other political content by order of the
Telecommunications Ministry and court
decisions—raises concerns about restrictions on the
right to freedom of expression and access to
information.
Violence against Women
In May Turkey took the important step to uphold
women's rights in the international arena by
becoming the first signatory to the Council of
Europe Convention against Domestic Violence and
Violence against Women. However, there remains a
pressing need to address the domestic rights deficit
for women in Turkey. Violence in the home is
endemic, and police and courts regularly fail to
protect women who have applied for protection orders
under the Family Protection Law. Reports of spouses
and family members killing women rose in 2011.
Torture, Ill-Treatment, and Use of Lethal Force by
Security Forces
Police violence against demonstrators is still a
serious problem in Turkey, requiring more resolute
action from the government. Too often the
authorities mask the problem by investigating
demonstrators for resisting police dispersal,
joining unlawful demonstrations, or terrorist
propaganda, rather than investigating allegations of
police abuse or investivating senior officers for
the conduct of officers under their authority. In
2011 there were also reports that police beat
detainees during arrest.
During an anti-AKP government demonstration in the
Black Sea town of Hopa on May 31, retired teacher
Metin Lokumcu died of a heart attack after excessive
tear gas exposure. Doctors documented injuries on
individuals who reported being beaten and
ill-treated by police during the demonstration’s
dispersal and in detention. Some police officers
also sustained injuries. Five demonstrators are on
trial for participating in an unlawful
demonstration, resisting police, and damaging public
property. Seven were acquitted of terrorist
propaganda in September. The investigation into
police ill-treatment is ongoing.
Use of firearms by police and the gendarmerie
remains a matter of concern, particularly against
unarmed suspects. There was no progress on
tightening rules governing use of force.
Combating Impunity
Increasing public discussion of the past and
emerging new information on past crimes means there
are opportunities for criminal investigations into
human rights abuses by state actors in the 1980s and
1990s. The government needs to support the process,
take steps to reform deficits in Turkey’s criminal
justice system, and strengthen fair trial standards.
Great obstacles remain to securing justice for
victims of abuses by police, military, and state
officials.
The most significant attempt to bring justice to the
state perpetrators of extrajudicial killings and
enforced disappearances continued with the ongoing
trial in Diyarbakır involving a now-retired colonel,
village guards, and informers for the murder of 20
individuals in Cizre, Şırnak, between 1993 and 1995.
In March former police officer Ayhan Çarkın spoke
publicly for the first time and later testified
before a prosecutor about his involvement in a
special operations unit committing political
assassinations of named Kurds and leftists in the
1990s. Çarkın alleged the unit acted under
government orders and with its collusion. In June he
was remanded to prison pending trial after claiming
involvement in four killings; the prosecutor’s
investigation continued at this writing.
In September Mehmet Ağar—a former police chief,
interior minister, and parliamentarian implicated in
Çarkın’s testimony—received a five-year prison
sentence for forming an armed criminal gang
involving state actors and mafia. Proceedings
against Ağar began with the evidence of state-mafia
activities, which were revealed after a 1996 traffic
accident near Susurluk, western Turkey. Until 2007
Ağar was protected from prosecution by parliamentary
immunity. He has appealed the conviction and remains
at liberty.
Trials continued of alleged anti-AKP coup plotters,
made up of senior retired military, police, mafia,
journalists, and academics, and know as the
“Ergenekon” gang. One of the most important advances
in 2011 was circumstantial evidence pointing to
Ergenekon gang involvement in the 2007 murder of
three Christians in Malatya. However, the prolonged
pre-trial detention of some Ergenekon defendants,
and the prosecution of Şık and Şener risk
undermining this important effort to combat
impunity.
There was no progress in uncovering the full plot
behind the January 2007 murder of journalist Hrant
Dink, although in September the prosecutor suggested
that the main suspects—who face possible life
imprisonment—may have Ergenekon gang connections. In
July the gunman Ogün Samast, who was 17-years-old at
the time of the murder, received a 23-year prison
sentence.
Key International Actors
There was little progress in Turkey’s bid for
European Union membership in 2011. Accession
negotiations remained stalled over Cyprus, the
Turkish government’s undertaking of too few reforms,
the lack of opening a new chapter in the
negotiations in 2011, and leading EU member states
continued hostility towards Turkey’s accession. The
AKP focused more on building a dynamic regional
foreign policy. The European Commission, in its
annual progress report, highlighted flaws in
Turkey’s criminal justice system, fair trial issues,
and restrictions on freedom of expression and media;
emphasized that “promoting gender equality and
combatting violence against women remain major
challenges”; and deemed the wide definition of
terrorism in Turkish law a “serious concern.”
The United States government remains an important
influence on Turkey, sharing military intelligence
on PKK movements in northern Iraq. The US has raised
particular concerns over Turkey’s record regarding
freedom of media and expression.
Following its November 2010 review of Turkey, the
United Nations Committee against Torture voiced
concerns about the failure to investigate “numerous,
ongoing and consistent allegations concerning the
use of torture” and asked Turkey to report again in
a year regarding steps taken to address the problems
identified. In September Turkey ratified the
Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against
Torture.
In a July report the Council of Europe commissioner
for human rights termed the situation in Turkey with
respect to freedom of expression and media freedom
“particularly worrying.”
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