FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE EU TURKEY AND THE KURDS

FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE EU, TURKEY AND THE KURDS
sustained with old State Security Court’s practices through new heavy penal courts.
Increase in number of arrest people is a typical indication of this situation.
The practise of torture, arrests and the heavy imprisonment sentences for Kurdish
children who join meetings and demonstrations and throw stones to policemen,
judged before special Heavy Penal Courts instead of children’s courts, shows the seriousness
of the situation. Turkey continues to violate the Convention on the Rights of
Child (1989) in terms of Kurdish children seriously. At mass demonstrations, which
were organized by Kurds in February, March, May, October and November 2008 and
in which Kurds rebelled, police and gendarmerie forces used excessive force that
resulted in torture being practiced on the streets. Images of policemen, who were
breaking arm of a child, are still in our minds. However the EU has not shown adequate
sensitivity to this violation.
A report, prepared in relation to the campaign conducted by the İHD about sick prisoners
in Turkey, shows that violations in prisons have reached a very high level. The
total numbers of prisoners are higher than the capacity of prisons in Turkey. Prisoners’
fundamental rights are ignored, and prisoners’ many rights especially right to life,
right to health, right to communication, right to conversation and linguistic rights
have been violated. Isolation practices in High Security Prisons are going on. Violations
in İmralı Prison, in which Mr. Abdullah Öcalan is being kept, have caused serious
reactions by democratic public opinion and many Kurdish people. The requirements
mentioned in reports by the CPT have not been fulfilled. The joint application
of the IHD, HRFT and Mazlum-Der to deploy a mission to the İmralı ‘One Person
Prison’ has not been accepted by the Ministry of Justice. We hope that the Government’s
statements, which have been announced to the public opinion, will decrease
problems in İmralı prison in 2009 to the lowest level. IHD has stated many times that
İmralı prison should be closed. Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture
(OPCAT) has not been ratified yet.
The current situation for respect to human rights, which fluctuates, is that it is decreasing.
The AKP Government, which insist on implementing policies based on
violence and expect something from this kind of solution for the Kurdish ‘question’,
has changed anti-terror law in a manner which is even more anti-human rights than
the former version in 2006, allowing police forces to use their guns arbitrarily in an
opposite manner to the Constitution. It has not abolished regulations that limit freedom
of expression in the TCK, increase in torture incidents in prisons and detention
places and refugee tragedies show that there is not a good picture in our country. The
fact that the Government has not established a national human rights institute within
the frame of Paris Principles, and does not have direct contact with human rights
organizations for about last two years indicate that the Government considers human
rights as a security problem. Indeed, the state ministry for human rights is also the
minister for security. This situation shows the Government’s mentality.
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