Turkish media outlets have reported new incidents of the systematic torture in the Police Department in Bartın province of Turkey which had come to the agenda with massive torture claims in the past also. According to a report by online news portal TR7/24, a victim who was exposed to torture in the police headquarter told his story through a Twitter account @Turkiyedeiskence which focuses on the torture cases in Turkey.
According to posts in the Twitter account, O. Şeyban, who was under police custody, has explained what he lived while being taken out by the Department of Anti-Smuggling and Organized Crime (KOM) Branch Director Tolga Sipahi and police officer Ayhan Çelik and another officer named only Özcan.
According to Twitter posts, O. Şeyban, who rejected to testify as requested by police officials, continues to explain the tortures by Ayhan Çelik and Özcan on August 6, 2017. “I was taken out of the cell in a position of that my hands were handcuffed behind the back and kept in a ‘Caddy’ branded vehicle by Ayhan Çelik at 7 pm on August 7, 2017,” said Şeyban and added “I was taken to a mountainous and wooded area near Mugada in Bartın with the same vehicle driven by Özcan. They cursed me, swore at me along the way.”
“Özcan, who driving the car, was saying, ‘If I get there I knock seven bells out of you! … son of bitch.’ He was swearing and threatening… On the way, A. Çelik was on the phone and saying, ‘we’ll deliver him over there’ something like that. He turned to me and said ‘I will deliver you to the MİT (Turkish Intelligence Organisation). You will take a dirt nap,” said Şeyban.
Stating that “When we arrived, A. Çelik stroked my heart twice with his elbow, threw three punches in my face and then began to squeeze my throat harder,” Şeyban has continued “A. Çelik, ‘give us the statement we wanted, be freed. If not, you will be in jail for 36 years. Your wife will be f… by others’ said he… I declared that I already testified before and that there was nothing else to add to the testimony… A. Çelik got down from the car and started talking on the phone with his supervisor at the back of the car. After, we returned to the branch directorate but they did not let me get down from the car.”
“They took my house key from the custody center and we went to my house. They opened the house door with the key and searched the house without a search warrant… They searched each and every room. My phone was confiscated and I was forced to sign the paper which ‘I gave it with my consent’ was written,” said Şeyban.
“As we returned to the branch directorate, A. Çelik kept on threatening me, telling the tortures he would do… A. Çelik said: ‘If you don’t tell us, your wish. We will have to commit the sin. Tomorrow every one under custody will go to courthouse only you will be left… I will switch off all the cameras and come to you. I’ll handcuff you to an iron bar and take out all your clothes… Respectively, first I’ll put this nightstick in your a.. then my … You have not left me anything to do. This is not my fault.”
According to a SCF report on Mach 22, 2017 with the title of “Suspicious Deaths And Suicides In Turkey” there has been an increase in the number of suicides and suspicious deaths in Turkey, most in Turkish jails and detention centers where a torture and ill-treatment is being practiced.
In most of the 54 cases mentioned in the report, (which was later updated with the list of 91 cases) authorities concluded these as suicides without any effective, independent investigation. The suspicious death has also taken place beyond the prison walls amid psychological pressure and threats of imminent imprisonment and torture, sometimes following the release of suspects or just before the detention.
Turkey survived a controversial military coup attempt on July 15, 2016 that killed 249 people. Immediately after the putsch, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government along with Turkey’s autocratic President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement.
Fethullah Gülen, who inspired the movement, strongly denied having any role in the failed coup and called for an international investigation into it, but President Erdoğan — calling the coup attempt “a gift from God” — and the government initiated a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody.
Turkey has suspended or dismissed more than 150,000 judges, teachers, police and civil servants since July 15, 2016. Turkey’s Justice Ministry announced on July 13 that 50,510 people have been arrested and 169,013 have been the subject of legal proceedings on coup charges since the failed coup.
