Turkish police took four young people into custody by the reason of allegedly insulting Turkish autocratic President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey’s Çankırı province on Thursday. They remained in detention late into the night after they were subjected to severe treatment and violence by at least ten police officers, reports net-nationalist Sözcü daily.
After having a heated argument with police officers since police insulted them by calling “clowns” by directing their long hairs, they remained under surveillance as they got a beating there even though police officers claimed that they insulted President Erdoğan. After being subjected to maltreatment in the police station, a group of 200 people protested the police violence in front of the Çankırı Provincial Directorate of Security.
Selim Akdoğan, who works in İzmir, came to his hometown Çankırı due to new year holiday. While Akdoğan was spending time with his friends outside, a civilian yelled at him by calling “clowns.”
Akdoğan said, “They exclaimed ‘Clowns come here, what is up with that hair?’ after us. We were affronted.” Akdoğan also told that his brother and friends Ali Salih Metin and Burçin Dombaz were detained when a heated argument broke out.
“The cops took me to the Public Security Branch Office by cuffing me behind the back, my brother and two of my friends. We were exposed to ill-treatment by at least 10 cops. Starting from the stairs I was beaten up to the 4th floor. My nose has been broken. I was held by hair, dragged along the corridor and I was punched,” he also told.
In reference to the violence allegations, the police officers claimed that these four people insulted President Erdoğan despite the fact that Akdoğan stressed that on the contrary they cursed us and our family.
After this occurrence, the Çankırı Governorate launched an investigation against the police. Akdoğan also stated that the police officers who beat them were drunk.
The Human Rights Association (İHD) and the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV) said on errant December 2017 that 2,278 people were tortured and 11 abducted in Turkey during the first 11 months of 2017.
In a report titled “Tortured to Death”, SCF investigators has exposed on Nov. 21, 2017 the case of 42-year-old history teacher Gökhan Açıkkollu, who died after enduring 13 days of torture and abuse in police detention in İstanbul.
The torture, ill-treatment, abusive, inhuman and degrading treatment of people who are deprived of their liberties in Turkey’s detention centers and prisons have become a norm rather than an exception under increased nationalistic euphoria and religious zealotry in the country in wake of a controversial coup attempt on July 15, 2016.
Stockholm Center for Freedom (SCF) has reported one of its studies titled “Suspicious Deaths and Suicides In Turkey” that there has been an increase in the number of suspicious deaths in Turkey, most in Turkish jails and detention centers where a torture and ill-treatment is being practiced. In most cases, authorities concluded these as suicides without any effective, independent investigation. SCF has compiled 101 cases of suspicious death and suicides in Turkey in a list as of December 28, 2017 in a searchable database format.
