As of: January 25, 2024, 5:15 p.m
By: Erkan Pehlivan
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The human rights situation in Turkey is increasingly deteriorating.
Now new criticism comes from the EU.
It's about torture in Turkish custody.
Ankara – Various human rights organizations repeatedly complain about torture and ill-treatment in police custody and prisons in Turkey.
“As the government's authoritarianism increases, torture and other ill-treatment continues in prisons,” said, for example, a report by the human rights foundation TIHV, the human rights association IHD and the Turkish Medical Association TTB in June 2023. Arbitrariness prevails in Turkey, it said Criticism that detention periods are too long and prevention mechanisms do not work.
“The entire country has become a place of torture,” was the verdict.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has now expressed concern in a report about the increasing number of torture cases in Turkish custody, even though the Turkish government had promised zero tolerance against torture.
“With regard to Turkey, the Assembly is also concerned by reports indicating that, despite the authorities' zero-tolerance message, the use of torture and ill-treatment in police custody and prison has increased in recent years and Turkey's previous progress overshadowed in this area.”
The Council of Europe also criticizes the increasing number of cases of torture in Turkish custody.
© dpa/Sedat Suna
Torture cases are just the tip of the iceberg in Turkey
Apparently those who torture do not have to fear prosecution.
In countries such as Turkey, Russia and Azerbaijan, a culture of “impunity for mistreatment and torture” can be observed, the report criticizes.
The “zero tolerance” practice towards torture must therefore be established in practice and should not just be a declaration of intent.
The introduction of a specific offense of torture would be a positive development, the report says.
The “Society for Threatened Peoples” also repeatedly criticizes Turkey and its President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for their massive human rights violations.
“Today I happened to have a long conversation with a political prisoner who spent many years in Turkish prisons.
What is in the report is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Dr.
Kemal Sido, Middle East consultant at the STP, told
fr.de
from
IPPEN.MEDIA
.
“My conversations have confirmed that the Erdogan regime is still systematically using torture in prisons.” Sido particularly criticizes the foreign affairs department under the Greens.
“Unfortunately, Turkey can afford to ignore European standards, because parts of the Green Party in Germany are also increasingly understanding of Turkey as a NATO partner.”
Torture as authoritarianization of Türkiye
The political scientist and Turkey expert Prof. Savas Genc is also observing an increase in cases of torture by Turkish security forces.
The country is becoming increasingly authoritarian.
“The Erdogan regime carries out all of its evil acts through the judiciary and the torturing security services,” Genc said.
“So we are talking about de facto authoritarianization.
It is a structure that is very reckless and destroys people’s lives with its practical applications.”
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Above all, the judiciary and security forces made such cases of torture possible.
“The biggest accomplices of the Erdogan regime are the judges who serve to build the party state and security authorities who favor the guilty but ruthlessly persecute the opposition,” said Genc.
A large part of the media is also part of the government's complicity, which is co-financed directly and indirectly by the ruling AKP party.
There are always reports of enemies of the state and terrorists here.
HRW calls for consequences for Turkey
It's not just torture cases that have increased in recent years ,
Luxembourg human rights expert and lawyer Hakan Kaplankaya told
fr.de.
“Incidents of torture increased especially after the coup attempt on July 15, 2016.
A new interrogation method called 'interview' has been developed in Ankara.
The Ankara Bar Association also noted this in its 2019 report.
My former colleagues also had to endure this,” says Kaplankaya.
The main aim of this filter method is to force fake confessions.
The human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) is therefore calling for consequences if Turkey repeatedly disregards rulings by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
“This could include the loss of voting rights in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and other sanctions, including expulsion from the bloc,” writes Hugh Williamson, HRW’s director for Europe and Central Asia, in a report.
But that seems unlikely.
Turkey is preventing millions of refugees from coming to the EU.
(erpe)