Türkiye
07.11.01
Urgent Interventions
Turkey: Excessive use of violence by Turkish police force OMCT calls for investigation
Case TUR 061101
Excessive use of violence by Turkish police force
OMCT calls for investigation
The International Secretariat of OMCT requests your URGENT intervention in the following situation in Turkey.
Brief description of the situation
The International Secretariat of OMCT is gravely concerned by the excessive and disproportionate use of force by the Turkish security forces and special police teams in Kuçukarmatlu, a small Istanbul neighbourhood.
According to information received, at about 3 p.m. on Tuesday 6th November 2001, approximately one thousand members of the special police force carried out an operation against hunger strikers on a «death fast», who were either on the verge of death or in an advanced state of mental and physical deterioration in the «death fast houses» in Kucukarmatlu, having been on prolonged hunger strikes in protest against Turkey’s new isolation cells. According to reliable sources, four people were killed (Ms Arzu Güler, Mrs. Sultan Yildiz, Mr. Bülent Durgaç and Mr. Baris Tas) and other ten people seriously injured during the raid. In addition, a large number of demonstrators were arrested and taken into custody.
The police reportedly attacked hunger strikers in the district, using armoured cars and bulldozers to break down barricades and houses, threw gas bombs and nerve and tear gas into the houses, brandished automatic weapons and batons to enter private death-fast houses and pulled out protesters already seriously weakened by months of hunger strike. Indeed the hungers strikers affected were either former political prisoners released for health reasons, or relatives of prisoners.
According to reliable sources, while entering into one of the death-fast houses, the police reportedly killed one of the hunger strikers, Sultan Yildiz shooting her point blank in the head. Reports and witnesses in Kucukarmatlu district further indicate that sporadic gunshots were heard and bullet marks found on the front doors of several houses.
Background information
The project to create F-type prisons was first started by the Turkish authorities in 1991. In the ensuing decade, prisoners have continued to engage in major protests and hunger strikes to denounce the conditions of their detention that range from the torturing of prisoners in solitary confinement to intimidation of individual prisoners in large dormitories. These protests have systematically resulted in violent interventions by State security forces in which dozens of prisoners have been killed and wounded since 1995. Turkey has repeatedly failed to investigate instances of alleged use of excessive force, torture and ill-treatment of prisoners.
OMCT recalls that on June 2001, an official Turkish forensic expert's report – published following the «Operation Return to life» military action against death fasting prisoners on 19 December 2000, in which 28 prisoners were killed by Turkish troops - confirmed prisoners' allegations that chemical gas had been used and traces of inflammable solvents were discovered on the skin and clothes of the dead female prisoners held in Bayrampasa prison in Istanbul, thus contradicting a Turkish official’s allegations that the prisoners had set fire to themselves.
Turkey has invoked European and international prison practices to legitimise a system that currently amounts to solitary confinement. However, OMCT recalls that the climate of impunity combined with the widespread use of torture and ill-treatment of prisoners seriously calls into question the use of F-type prisons in Turkey.
Action requested
Please write to the authorities in Turkey urging them to:
i. carry out a full, impartial and effective investigation into these incidents in order to identify those responsible, bring them to trial and apply the penal, civil and/or administrative sanctions as provided by law;
ii. guarantee the respect of human rights and the fundamental freedoms throughout the country in accordance with national laws and international human rights standards and condemn the use of torture in the light of the Convention on Torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment in Turkey.
Addresses
President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, Office of the President, Cumhur Baskanligi, 06100 Ankara
Fax : + 90 312 427 13 30
Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit, Office of the Prime Minister, Basbakanlik, 06573 Ankara
Fax : + 90 312 417 0476
Professor Hikmet Sami Turk, Ministry of Justice, Minister of Justice, Adalet Bakanligi, 06659, Ankara
Fax : (+ 90 312) 417 39 54 or 418 56 67
Mr Mehmet Ali Irtemcelik, State Minister with responsibility for Human Rights, Devlet Bakani, Office of the Prime Minister, Baobakanlik, 06573 Ankara
Fax : + 90 312 417 0476
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Disisleri Bakanligi 06100 Ankara
Fax : + 90 312 419 15 47
The diplomatic representatives of Turkey in your country.
Geneva, 7 November 2001.
Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.
Excessive use of violence by Turkish police force
OMCT calls for investigation
The International Secretariat of OMCT requests your URGENT intervention in the following situation in Turkey.
Brief description of the situation
The International Secretariat of OMCT is gravely concerned by the excessive and disproportionate use of force by the Turkish security forces and special police teams in Kuçukarmatlu, a small Istanbul neighbourhood.
According to information received, at about 3 p.m. on Tuesday 6th November 2001, approximately one thousand members of the special police force carried out an operation against hunger strikers on a «death fast», who were either on the verge of death or in an advanced state of mental and physical deterioration in the «death fast houses» in Kucukarmatlu, having been on prolonged hunger strikes in protest against Turkey’s new isolation cells. According to reliable sources, four people were killed (Ms Arzu Güler, Mrs. Sultan Yildiz, Mr. Bülent Durgaç and Mr. Baris Tas) and other ten people seriously injured during the raid. In addition, a large number of demonstrators were arrested and taken into custody.
The police reportedly attacked hunger strikers in the district, using armoured cars and bulldozers to break down barricades and houses, threw gas bombs and nerve and tear gas into the houses, brandished automatic weapons and batons to enter private death-fast houses and pulled out protesters already seriously weakened by months of hunger strike. Indeed the hungers strikers affected were either former political prisoners released for health reasons, or relatives of prisoners.
According to reliable sources, while entering into one of the death-fast houses, the police reportedly killed one of the hunger strikers, Sultan Yildiz shooting her point blank in the head. Reports and witnesses in Kucukarmatlu district further indicate that sporadic gunshots were heard and bullet marks found on the front doors of several houses.
Background information
The project to create F-type prisons was first started by the Turkish authorities in 1991. In the ensuing decade, prisoners have continued to engage in major protests and hunger strikes to denounce the conditions of their detention that range from the torturing of prisoners in solitary confinement to intimidation of individual prisoners in large dormitories. These protests have systematically resulted in violent interventions by State security forces in which dozens of prisoners have been killed and wounded since 1995. Turkey has repeatedly failed to investigate instances of alleged use of excessive force, torture and ill-treatment of prisoners.
OMCT recalls that on June 2001, an official Turkish forensic expert's report – published following the «Operation Return to life» military action against death fasting prisoners on 19 December 2000, in which 28 prisoners were killed by Turkish troops - confirmed prisoners' allegations that chemical gas had been used and traces of inflammable solvents were discovered on the skin and clothes of the dead female prisoners held in Bayrampasa prison in Istanbul, thus contradicting a Turkish official’s allegations that the prisoners had set fire to themselves.
Turkey has invoked European and international prison practices to legitimise a system that currently amounts to solitary confinement. However, OMCT recalls that the climate of impunity combined with the widespread use of torture and ill-treatment of prisoners seriously calls into question the use of F-type prisons in Turkey.
Action requested
Please write to the authorities in Turkey urging them to:
i. carry out a full, impartial and effective investigation into these incidents in order to identify those responsible, bring them to trial and apply the penal, civil and/or administrative sanctions as provided by law;
ii. guarantee the respect of human rights and the fundamental freedoms throughout the country in accordance with national laws and international human rights standards and condemn the use of torture in the light of the Convention on Torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment in Turkey.
Addresses
President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, Office of the President, Cumhur Baskanligi, 06100 Ankara
Fax : + 90 312 427 13 30
Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit, Office of the Prime Minister, Basbakanlik, 06573 Ankara
Fax : + 90 312 417 0476
Professor Hikmet Sami Turk, Ministry of Justice, Minister of Justice, Adalet Bakanligi, 06659, Ankara
Fax : (+ 90 312) 417 39 54 or 418 56 67
Mr Mehmet Ali Irtemcelik, State Minister with responsibility for Human Rights, Devlet Bakani, Office of the Prime Minister, Baobakanlik, 06573 Ankara
Fax : + 90 312 417 0476
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Disisleri Bakanligi 06100 Ankara
Fax : + 90 312 419 15 47
The diplomatic representatives of Turkey in your country.
Geneva, 7 November 2001.
Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.