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HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES CONTINUE, SAYS LAWYER
The Irish Times
October 8, 2007 Monday
TURKEY: Although Turkey has changed more than 50 laws relating to
human rights, the bureaucracy of justice continues to resist change,
writes Lara Marlowe.
The bullet holes in the door behind Hosnu Ondul are numbered one to
eight. Ondul's predecessor as president of the Turkish Human Rights
Association, Akin Birdal, was hit seven times, but he survived the
assassination attempt on May 12th, 1998, and is today a member of
the Turkish parliament.
Though not a Kurd himself, Ondul says Birdal was targeted for
defending the rights of Turkey's Kurdish minority. "They claimed we
were connected with the (Kurdish separatist group) PKK, that we were
helping a terrorist organisation," says Ondul, a lawyer with 21 years
experience in human rights work.
Could it happen again today? Ondul laughs. "This can happen any time
in Turkey. Yesterday, the chief of staff Gen Yasar Buyukanit threatened
MPs from the [ pro-Kurd] DTP party because they refuse to call the PKK
"terrorists". He said there should be 'intervention'.
That could mean anything - arrest, murder." The day after I interviewed
Ondul, there was a drive-by shooting attack on DTP headquarters
in Ankara.
In its quest for EU membership, Turkey has changed more than 50 laws
relating to human rights, Ondul admits. "For example, the death penalty
was abolished [ in March 2006] and that is a good thing. The bans on
teaching or broadcasting in other languages have been lifted.
This is positive. There are improvements in laws on the right to
assembly, women's rights and freedom of expression. But the bureaucracy
of justice in Turkey resists these changes." The ongoing trial of 18
people accused of the murder of the Armenian journalist Hrant Dink last
January is a stunning example of human rights abuses by what is known
as the "deep state," an underground fraternity of ultra-nationalist
police, military and criminal gangs. "Half the evidence disappeared,"
recounts a European diplomat. "They chose a minor to pull the trigger,
so there couldn't be a public trial.
Police in [ the Black Sea port of ] Trabzon posed for photographs
with the murderer, holding Turkish flags, in front of a portrait of
Ataturk. It's grotesque."
Though they have been in power for five years and were re-elected this
summer with 47 per cent of the vote, the AK party, whose origins are
Islamist, are either unable or unwilling to take on the "deep state".
Ondul blames secular judges and the military who oppose the AK for
condoning human rights abuses. "They are afraid of having too much
democracy, because they fear it will strengthen the fundamentalists,"
he explains.
For their part, Ondul continues, "the government stopped harmonisation
[ of humans rights legislation] once the negotiations [ for EU
accession] started in 2005. The AK haven't sufficiently internalised
democratic values. The goal of their reforms was more to start
negotiations than to change the lives of Turkish people.
They'll resume when the EU pushes them." The government tries to
maintain good relations with the Human Rights Association, he adds;
the military and prosecutors do not.
The EU's next annual progress report on Turkey is due on November
6th. Ankara has been under pressure to abolish article 301 of the
penal code, which criminalises statements insulting "Turkishness".
Many of Turkey's leading writers, including the Nobel Prize laureate
Orhan Pamuk, have been prosecuted under article 301. The government's
promise this week to change article 301 to ban statements "against
the Turkish nation" and to require the justice minister's approval
for prosecution is not likely to satisfy the EU.
In the first six months of 2007, the Turkish Human Rights Association
reports, there were 455 prosecutions violating freedom of expression
under articles 301, 215, 216, 218 and others. "Prosecutors and judges
behave as if there were no changes in law," says Ondul. "The penal
code has changed from A to Z, but they still open these cases and
charge people. This is the way the Turkish state behaves. This is a
way of keeping people quiet.
"People have been arrested just for using the word 'Kurdistan'," Ondul
continues. (Last week, Turkey refused to allow a German company calling
itself Kurdistan Airways to use its airspace.) "You can get arrested
for referring to Sayin [ a term of respect] Abdullah Ocalan [ the
imprisoned PKK leader]. There are three red lines you mustn't cross:
Kurdish rights, the Armenian genocide and the army." The most common
infringement of human rights is freedom to assemble or demonstrate,
says Ondul. "During demonstrations, people are arrested en masse,
then released, because of the slogans they chant or the banners they
carry. They are accused of supporting terrorist organisations. Law
2911 on demonstrations has been changed twice and guarantees freedom
of assembly, but in practice there are still problems."
Ondul is more severe than EU rapporteurs regarding what he calls
"widespread and systematic torture in Turkey".
When the AK Party came to power in 2002, it vowed "zero tolerance
for torture". The worst types of torture - electric shocks, beating
the soles of feet and hanging people from their wrists tied behind
their back - have all but disappeared, Ondul admits. But other forms
of ill-treatment, defined by the European Convention on Human Rights
as torture, continue.
The human rights group Amnesty International condemns what it calls
an "entrenched culture of impunity" for police and security forces
who violate human rights in Turkey. "We have documented hundreds of
cases of torture victims," says Ondul.
"The police who torture are not being punished; they are never taken
off duty; they are never charged." On August 20th, Festus Okey, a
Nigerian immigrant, died in police custody in central Istanbul. The
policeman who killed Okey is still on duty. "They punish people who
criticise the state, but they protect the police because they're
civil servants," Ondul sighs.
Last week, a young girl was caught trying to steal a bracelet in a
jewellery shop in Istanbul. CCTV footage of her being beaten by the
the jeweller, then police, was shown on Turkish television. The police
took the girl away and beat her again.
"The police defend themselves by saying she was caught stealing," says
Ondul. "They don't understand that you're not allowed to beat people,
even if you know they're guilty. Our fight against torture continues."
From: Baghdasarian
The Irish Times
October 8, 2007 Monday
TURKEY: Although Turkey has changed more than 50 laws relating to
human rights, the bureaucracy of justice continues to resist change,
writes Lara Marlowe.
The bullet holes in the door behind Hosnu Ondul are numbered one to
eight. Ondul's predecessor as president of the Turkish Human Rights
Association, Akin Birdal, was hit seven times, but he survived the
assassination attempt on May 12th, 1998, and is today a member of
the Turkish parliament.
Though not a Kurd himself, Ondul says Birdal was targeted for
defending the rights of Turkey's Kurdish minority. "They claimed we
were connected with the (Kurdish separatist group) PKK, that we were
helping a terrorist organisation," says Ondul, a lawyer with 21 years
experience in human rights work.
Could it happen again today? Ondul laughs. "This can happen any time
in Turkey. Yesterday, the chief of staff Gen Yasar Buyukanit threatened
MPs from the [ pro-Kurd] DTP party because they refuse to call the PKK
"terrorists". He said there should be 'intervention'.
That could mean anything - arrest, murder." The day after I interviewed
Ondul, there was a drive-by shooting attack on DTP headquarters
in Ankara.
In its quest for EU membership, Turkey has changed more than 50 laws
relating to human rights, Ondul admits. "For example, the death penalty
was abolished [ in March 2006] and that is a good thing. The bans on
teaching or broadcasting in other languages have been lifted.
This is positive. There are improvements in laws on the right to
assembly, women's rights and freedom of expression. But the bureaucracy
of justice in Turkey resists these changes." The ongoing trial of 18
people accused of the murder of the Armenian journalist Hrant Dink last
January is a stunning example of human rights abuses by what is known
as the "deep state," an underground fraternity of ultra-nationalist
police, military and criminal gangs. "Half the evidence disappeared,"
recounts a European diplomat. "They chose a minor to pull the trigger,
so there couldn't be a public trial.
Police in [ the Black Sea port of ] Trabzon posed for photographs
with the murderer, holding Turkish flags, in front of a portrait of
Ataturk. It's grotesque."
Though they have been in power for five years and were re-elected this
summer with 47 per cent of the vote, the AK party, whose origins are
Islamist, are either unable or unwilling to take on the "deep state".
Ondul blames secular judges and the military who oppose the AK for
condoning human rights abuses. "They are afraid of having too much
democracy, because they fear it will strengthen the fundamentalists,"
he explains.
For their part, Ondul continues, "the government stopped harmonisation
[ of humans rights legislation] once the negotiations [ for EU
accession] started in 2005. The AK haven't sufficiently internalised
democratic values. The goal of their reforms was more to start
negotiations than to change the lives of Turkish people.
They'll resume when the EU pushes them." The government tries to
maintain good relations with the Human Rights Association, he adds;
the military and prosecutors do not.
The EU's next annual progress report on Turkey is due on November
6th. Ankara has been under pressure to abolish article 301 of the
penal code, which criminalises statements insulting "Turkishness".
Many of Turkey's leading writers, including the Nobel Prize laureate
Orhan Pamuk, have been prosecuted under article 301. The government's
promise this week to change article 301 to ban statements "against
the Turkish nation" and to require the justice minister's approval
for prosecution is not likely to satisfy the EU.
In the first six months of 2007, the Turkish Human Rights Association
reports, there were 455 prosecutions violating freedom of expression
under articles 301, 215, 216, 218 and others. "Prosecutors and judges
behave as if there were no changes in law," says Ondul. "The penal
code has changed from A to Z, but they still open these cases and
charge people. This is the way the Turkish state behaves. This is a
way of keeping people quiet.
"People have been arrested just for using the word 'Kurdistan'," Ondul
continues. (Last week, Turkey refused to allow a German company calling
itself Kurdistan Airways to use its airspace.) "You can get arrested
for referring to Sayin [ a term of respect] Abdullah Ocalan [ the
imprisoned PKK leader]. There are three red lines you mustn't cross:
Kurdish rights, the Armenian genocide and the army." The most common
infringement of human rights is freedom to assemble or demonstrate,
says Ondul. "During demonstrations, people are arrested en masse,
then released, because of the slogans they chant or the banners they
carry. They are accused of supporting terrorist organisations. Law
2911 on demonstrations has been changed twice and guarantees freedom
of assembly, but in practice there are still problems."
Ondul is more severe than EU rapporteurs regarding what he calls
"widespread and systematic torture in Turkey".
When the AK Party came to power in 2002, it vowed "zero tolerance
for torture". The worst types of torture - electric shocks, beating
the soles of feet and hanging people from their wrists tied behind
their back - have all but disappeared, Ondul admits. But other forms
of ill-treatment, defined by the European Convention on Human Rights
as torture, continue.
The human rights group Amnesty International condemns what it calls
an "entrenched culture of impunity" for police and security forces
who violate human rights in Turkey. "We have documented hundreds of
cases of torture victims," says Ondul.
"The police who torture are not being punished; they are never taken
off duty; they are never charged." On August 20th, Festus Okey, a
Nigerian immigrant, died in police custody in central Istanbul. The
policeman who killed Okey is still on duty. "They punish people who
criticise the state, but they protect the police because they're
civil servants," Ondul sighs.
Last week, a young girl was caught trying to steal a bracelet in a
jewellery shop in Istanbul. CCTV footage of her being beaten by the
the jeweller, then police, was shown on Turkish television. The police
took the girl away and beat her again.
"The police defend themselves by saying she was caught stealing," says
Ondul. "They don't understand that you're not allowed to beat people,
even if you know they're guilty. Our fight against torture continues."
From: Baghdasarian