Amnesty International Report 2007
Republic of Turkey
Head of state: Ahmet Necdet Sezer
Head of government: Recep Tayyip Erdo¬an
Death penalty: abolitionist for all crimes
International Criminal Court: not ratified
After the introduction of new legislation in previous years, there was
little evidence of progress in the implementation of reforms. There
were continued prosecutions of people expressing their peacefully held
opinions. Human rights further deteriorated in the eastern and
south-eastern provinces in the context of an increase in fighting
between the security forces and the armed Kurdistan Workers’ Party
(PKK); there was an increase in attacks on civilians in other areas by
armed groups. There were reports of excessive use of force against
demonstrators by law enforcement officers during violent protests in
the city of Diyarbak¹r in the south-east of the country. Inspite of
a general decrease in allegations of torture or ill-treatment, there
were reports that such abuses were widespread in police custody
against those detained during the protests. There were continued
concerns about unfair trials and conditions in "F-type" prisons.
Little progress was made in creating shelters for women victims of
violence.
Background
In December the European Union (EU) partially froze Turkey’s
membership negotiations because of its refusal to open its ports and
airports for trade with the Republic of Cyprus on the grounds of the
EU’s continuing embargo of the internationally unrecognized Turkish
Republic of Northern Cyprus.
In June, Parliament revised the Law to Fight Terrorism, greatly
widening the scope and number of crimes punishable as terrorist
offences, introducing articles liable to further restrict freedom of
expression, and failing to restrict the use of lethal force by law
enforcement officials. In July the President approved the Law but
applied to the Constitutional Court for the annulment of two articles
relating to sanctions against the press. In September the Ombudsman
Law was passed by Parliament after amendments. During the year, Turkey
ratified both the (first) Optional Protocol to the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Second Optional
Protocol to the ICCPR, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty.
Official human rights mechanisms, such as the provincial human rights
boards under the control of the Human Rights Presidency attached to
the Prime Minister’s Office, did not function consistently and failed
to address grave violations.
Freedom of expression
Laws containing fundamental restrictions on freedom of expression
remained in force, resulting in the prosecution, and sometimes
conviction, of groups such as journalists, writers, publishers,
academics, human rights defenders and students for the peaceful
expression of their beliefs.
Many prosecutions were brought under Article 301
of the Turkish Penal Code (TPC) which criminalizes denigration of
"Turkishness", the Republic and the institutions of the state. Most of
these cases, such as that of Nobel Prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk,
ended in acquittal.
¢ In July the General Penal Board of the Court of Cassation upheld
a six-month suspended sentence against Hrant Dink, a journalist, who
was tried after writing about Armenian identity in Agos newspaper.
Turkish and international human rights defenders campaigned for the
repeal of Article 301 of the TPC on the grounds that it lacked "legal
certainty of the crime". They rejected the arguments of the Ministry
of Justice that the development of case law would signal an end to
arbitrary prosecutions.
Other articles of the new TPC of 2005 also imposed restrictions on
freedom of expression.
¢ In October Abdurrahman Dilipak, a journalist with Vakit
newspaper, received a sentence of just under one year, commuted to a
fine of 10,500 liras (approximately US$7,250), for insulting the
President. The prosecutor had called for his acquittal.
¢ Birgül Ã-zbar¹ô, a journalist for
Ã-zgür Gündem newspaper, faced seven prosecutions for
"alienating
the population from military service" because of her writings on
military service and conscientious objection. She faced possible
prison sentences totalling 36 years.
Article 288 of the TPC restricting public comment
on cases under judicial consideration was used in an arbitrary and
overly restrictive way to hinder independent investigation and public
comment on human rights violations.
Officials of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) and those
joining pro-Kurdish platforms faced frequent prosecutions amounting to
a pattern of judicial harassment.
¢ The trial of 56 mayors from the DTP began in October. The mayors
had signed a letter in December 2005 to the Danish Prime Minister,
arguing that the Denmark-based Kurdish television channel, Roj TV,
should not be closed down. They were being prosecuted for "knowingly
and willingly supporting the PKK."
People collecting signatures for a petition recognizing Abdullah
Ã-calan, imprisoned leader of the PKK, as a "political
representative", received varying sentences, with students receiving
the harshest punishments.
Killings in disputed circumstances
There were continuing reports of fatal shootings of civilians by
members of the security forces. The usual explanation for these
killings was that the victims had failed to obey a warning to stop,
but such killings often demonstrated disproportionate use of force and
in some cases may have amounted to extrajudicial executions. There
were concerns about Article 16 in the revised Law to Fight Terrorism
which failed to be explicit that lethal force could only be used when
strictly unavoidable to protect life. There were fears that Article
16, which permitted the "direct and unhesitating" use of firearms to
"render the danger ineffective", could further hinder thorough and
impartial investigations into shootings by members of the security
forces.
Members of the security forces continued to use excessive force during
the policing of demonstrations. Demonstrations in March in
Diyarbak¹r, to mark the funeral ceremony of four PKK members,
escalated into violent protests. Ten people, including four minors,
were killed, eight of them from gunshot wounds. Many demonstrators
and police officers were injured. Investigations into the killings
were continuing at the end of the year. The demonstrations spread to
neighbouring cities; two demonstrators were shot dead in the town of
K¹z¹ltepe, a stray bullet killed a boy aged three in the
city of Batman, and in Istanbul three women died when a bus crashed
after being set on fire by demonstrators.
In September a bombing in a park in Diyarbak¹r resulted in 10
deaths. The perpetrators were unknown.
Attacks by armed groups
Bomb attacks targeting civilians increased. An armed group, the
Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, claimed responsibility for bomb attacks
including in Istanbul, Manavgat, Marmaris and Antalya, in which nine
people died and scores were injured. In March, in the city of Van in
the east of the country, a bomb exploded next to a minibus, leaving
two civilians and the bomber, a PKK member, dead.
The PKK announced a unilateral ceasefire with effect from 1 October,
and there was a subsequent decrease in armed clashes.
In May, an armed attack on judges at the Council of State (the higher
administrative court) resulted in the death of a judge, Mustafa
Yücel Ã-zbilgin, and the wounding of four other judges. The
trial of the gunman and of eight others for the attack and for three
bomb attacks on the premises of the newspaper, Cumhuriyet, began in
August in Ankara.
In February, former PKK executive Kani Y¹lmaz, one of the
founders of the Patriotic Democratic Party of Kurdistan (PWD), and PWD
member Sabri Tori were assassinated in a car bomb attack in
Suleymanieh, northern Iraq, continuing a pattern of assassinations
allegedly carried out by the PKK against the PWD.
Torture
There were continued reports of torture and ill-treatment by law
enforcement officials, although fewer than in previous
years. Detainees alleged that they had been beaten, threatened with
death, deprived of food, water and sleep during detention. Some of the
torture and ill-treatment took place in unofficial places of
detention.
¢ In October, Erdal Bozkurt reported that he was abducted in
Alibeyköy in Istanbul by men identifying themselves as police
officers, put into a car, blindfolded and handcuffed, beaten and
threatened with death, and taken to a place where he was tortured and
interrogated for a whole day about his and other people’s involvement
in a local group which had been protesting against drug dealers and
social problems in their neighbourhood. He was released the following
day.
There were widespread allegations by adults and minors of torture and
ill-treatment during the mass detentions in the course of riots in
Diyarbak¹r in March.
¢ Two 14-year-old boys reported that they were held for around nine
hours at the �arô¹ police station, stripped
naked, made to pour cold water over each other, were threatened with
rape, made to lie on a concrete floor, and were forced to kneel down
with their hands tied behind their backs while being repeatedly beaten
with fists and truncheons and kicked by police officers. Medical
reports showed signs of their ill-treatment. They were later
transferred to the Children’s Department of the Police in another
district.
Impunity
Investigations into violations by members of the security forces
continued to be deeply flawed and there was a general unwillingness
among elements of the judiciary to bring those responsible to justice.
¢ In February, a decision was made not to pursue an investigation
into the alleged torture of five male teenagers in October 2005 in the
town of Ordu.
¢ Two gendarmerie intelligence officers and an informer received
prison sentences of over 39 years for the bombing of a bookshop in the
town of ¤¤¤emdinli in November 2005, in which one
man died. The court’s verdict stated that the men could not have acted
without the involvement of their seniors. Pending appeal at the end
of the year, the case exposed the serious obstacles to bringing to
justice senior members of the security forces suspected of committing
violations.
Interference in justice system
The ¤emdinli bombing trial (see above) proceeded after an
investigation into the bombing which appeared to have been mired by
political interference by members of the government and senior
military personnel. The Public Prosecutor’s indictment was made public
in March, and implicated the head of the army’s land forces and other
senior local military personnel in Hakkari province. The Public
Prosecutor requested a separate investigation by the military
prosecutor to establish whether the bombing was part of a wider
conspiracy. The Ministry of Justice investigated the Public Prosecutor
for possible misconduct and in April the Higher Council of Judges and
Prosecutors dismissed him from office. An appeal by the Public
Prosecutor was unsuccessful.
Fair trial concerns
Those charged under anti-terrorism legislation continued to face
lengthy and unfair trials in the special Heavy Penal Courts which
replaced the State Security Courts abolished in 2004. Prosecutors
relied on evidence based on statements allegedly extracted under
torture. Retrials, following judgements by the European Court of Human
Rights that trials were unfair, were not impartial and did not
re-examine evidence. Proceedings were excessively prolonged, and
provisions limiting pre-trial detention had not yet become law and did
not adequately address the need to complete a trial within a
reasonable time.
Prison conditions
Prisoners continued to report ill-treatment, arbitrary and harsh
disciplinary punishments and solitary confinement or small-group
isolation in "F-type" prisons. In September the European Committee for
the Prevention of Torture (CPT) issued a report relating to its
December 2005 visit to places of detention in Turkey, calling for a
significant increase in the amount of time allowed for prisoners to
associate with each other and commenting on the "very harmful
consequences" of an isolation-type regime which could lead to "inhuman
and degrading treatment". The CPT also reiterated the call it made in
2004 for a full-scale review of prison health care services.
Conscientious objectors Conscientious objection was not recognized and
no civilian alternative was available.
¢ In a retrial in October, Sivas Military Court sentenced Mehmet
Tarhan to two years and one month’s imprisonment on two charges of
insubordination following his refusal on two occasions to perform
military service.
Violence against women
There was little progress in implementing the provision in the 2004
Law on Municipalities, which stipulated the need for shelters for
women victims of domestic violence in towns with a population of more
than 50,000. Women’s organizations called for additional funds from
the government to implement the law. A circular from the Prime
Minister in July, outlining measures to combat violence against women
and children, and to prevent so-called "honour killings", represented
a step towards acknowledging an entrenched and endemic problem.
In December, Parliament passed revisions to the Law on the Protection
of the Family, widening its scope.
AI country reports/visits
Reports
¢ Europe: Partners in crime – Europe’s role in US
renditions (AI Index: EUR 01/008/2006)
¢ Turkey: Article 301 – How the law on "denigrating Turkishness" is an
insult to free expression (AI Index: EUR 44/003/2006)
¢ Turkey: No impunity for state officials who violate human rights –
Briefing on the ¤emdinli bombing
investigation and trial (AI Index: EUR 44/006/2006)
¢ Turkey: Briefing on the wide-ranging, arbitrary and restrictive draft
revisions to the Law to Fight Terrorism (AI Index: EUR 44/009/2006)
¢ Turkey: Justice delayed and denied – The persistence of
protracted and unfair trials for those charged under anti-terrorism
legislation (AI Index: EUR 44/013/2006)
Visits
AI delegates visited Turkey in March, April, May and October.