A neighborhood watchman in Kayseri province has fatally beaten 67-year-old retired man, reviving longstanding concerns over allegations of abuse, ill treatment and assault, Deutsche Welle Turkish edition reported.
İzzet Karataş reportedly got into a traffic dispute with the watchman, during which he was severely beaten. Karataş was taken to the hospital in critical condition and subsequently passed away. The watchman fled the scene but was later arrested and put in pretrial detention.
Neighborhood watchmen in Turkey have faced criticism for abuse of power, including the harassment of minors, the issuing of threats and attacks on reporters.
Once disbanded, the nighttime neighborhood watchmen were revived by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and began patrolling city streets in 2017, a year after an attempted coup. The opposition strongly criticized the government for giving them the authority to demand that people present identification as well as the ability to use force, carry weapons and apprehend suspects.
A 2020 Human Rights Watch report noted widespread impunity and rising cases of ill-treatment by police and watchmen since the 2016 coup attempt.
