Turkey’s main opposition People’s Republican Party (CHP) deputy Sezgin Tanrıkulu, who has released a report on human rights violations last week for the first 8 months of 2017 in Turkey, has stated that some practices of Turkish government has gone beyond the systematic violation of fundamental human rights and reached to the level of attack.
Stating that approximately 50 people, who cannot stand the injustice, have committed suicide in the same period, Tanrıkulu has said in his report that at least 480 people have been subjected to torture and ill-treatment by the police and one person died under custody.
The report has also contained the claim that 14 people were ‘enforced to disappear’ in the last 8 months. The enforced to disappear, which had been engraved in memory in the 1990s, has become visible again in Turkey, according to the report.
Reminding that 8 prisoners has lost their lives in last 8 months and at least 367 prisoners were subjected to torture and ill-treatment, it has reported that 605 prisoners were forcibly sent to another prison in the same period, and the right to health of 35 prisoners was also violated. Additionally, the torture and mistreatment in Turkey have shifted from detention centers to the streets.
The report has also pointed out the issue of freedom of the press in Turkey saying that 152 journalists are currently in prisons of Turkey despite the AKP government mentioned the number of arrested journalists only as two. It has been recorded that Turkey has been ranked at 155th place out of 180 countries, down four spots from its place in 2016, according to Press Freedom Index of Journalists Without Borders (RSF) in 2017.
Moreover, the report has also highlighted the fact that the workplace homicide, violence against women, and ‘execution without due process’ have dramatically increased in Turkey. According to the report, 1,924 people lost their lives because of unnatural reasons during the first 8 months of the year. Also 1,119 laborers died. 118 soldiers, 5 police officers, 264 ‘illegal organization members’, 11 village guards and one civilian lost their lives in the armed conflicts. Also, 74 people, including one child, died as a result of terrorist attacks.
Tanrıkulu expresses that, in Turkey, where rights of collective demonstration and rally are suspended due to state of emergency, people face judicial gripper when they point out their problems and reactions through social media. According to the report, it has even been impossible to keep the records of those who have been sued, detained and arrested because of their posts in social media.
Tanrıkulu has also said in his report that human rights advocacy in Turkey have faced to challenge enormous problems in the country where NGOs have been closed down with decree law, human rights defenders have been arrested for fabricated reasons, and the press has been monolithic.
