Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

REVUE DE PRESSE~PRESS REVIEW~BERHEYOKA
ÇAPÊ~RMSTA STAMPA~DENTRO DE LA PRENSA~BASIN ÖZETi
~
~ I questIOn
, uman
IHV
R · h t
rehabilitation
Izmir.
Association
Human Rights Foundation
Funding of the physical and psychological
The Human Rights Foundation of treatment of torture victims is provided for
' Turkey (lHV -standing for Insan through donations and supportto the individ-
Haklari Vakfi) is a nongovernmental ual projects by national and international
organization which was established nongovernmental institutions, ~nd .individuin
1990 by 32 people.
aIs. IHV' s second field of activity ISthe sys-
Working on the principle of individual pro- tematic documentation of human rights abus- ,
jects, the IHV has two main fields of activity. es in Turkey.
gives priority to 'the rehabilitation of ' The mV documentation center prints
victims of torture. '
daily, weekly an
d
year
I
~ reports.on t
h
e VIOa-
. I
The foundation has set up three torture tions of human fights III Turkey.
centers in Ankara, Istanbul and Subscriptions to these reports provide addi-
tional funds to the foundation to be used
H
, 19 S So far hundreds of people have been again in documentation activities, The sub-
,affected by torture they were subjected to scription address is: Menek~e 2 Sokak, 16/6-
, while in police and gendarmerie custody.' 7,06640, KlZllay, Ankara.
What are human rights?
In
he Human Rights Association ' . '" ' ' ..
T(IHo-standing for Insan Haklan Turkey, t~e main queStlon IS: w,hat Islatureand the carelessness and un~llhn.g-
Oernegi) was established on July are hum.an nghts? Now eve.nofficiaIs nessof the government and all officiaI clr-
17, 1986; by 98 people, including ~re ta.1klngabo.ut huma~ nghts. The cles. . . ' '
academics, authors, jurists, engineers, .. Issue ISev~n being mentIOnedo~ tele- , There I~a fall~re on alllevels to search for
architects journalists and sorne relatives of. VISion.The Turkish g?vernment has ~lgned dem.ocratlcsolutlons.
prisoners.' ' .' , al~ost every. accord In Europe and !n the Villages .are burned, towns are evacuated,
There were two prior initiatives to estab- U nlled NatIOns .about huma~ fights. demo,nstratlng.groups ,are ~red upon, people
lish a human rights association in Turkey However, .the q~estlon of human nghts !TIust are ki!led ~unn~ h?u~e raids and murder~d
in 1946 and 1962 but they did not last very be so.methlngdifferent than the ~uman nghts ' by. umde~tl~ed mdlv!duals, p~ople are Stlll
long., ' , 'mentlOned.so frequently byoffIclals. dYing.whJI~In detentIOnand disappearances
Th ' , tablishment of the third one came To~ay, If you ~ery clearly state that the are stl~l~akingplace. .
t ~ es h Turkish society needed to Kurdls.h.problem In Turk~y must be solved Off1c~als, however, are talking about
~ a !me w en und reated b ' by pohtlcal and democratlc means, you may human nghts more than ever.
and he~l the wo ,s ~ . y be, co'nsidered a traitor. If you give some Systematic torture and murder are still on
, the - th~~, p~tally -; con~lnulngmartial facts about the violations 'Ofsecurity forces the top of the list of human rights violations
law. ~dmmlstratlO~ ~nd particularly b~ the in the Southeast, you may be accused of tak- in Turkey. What is more, these drastic viola-
~eclsl~ns of the~lIhtary courts. That sltua- ing sides with the PKK (outlawed Kurdistan tions are verified by the official reports of
lIOnm!ght explain why the IHO h~s gro~n Workers' Party). ' the Council of Europe and also by the United
so qUickly to defend human fights In What happens to Kurdishpeople who Nations. ' ,
Turkey. ' .' 'leave their towns and villages in the There are all kinds of attacks on journal-
Irhas57 branch'offtces and l1lore than Southeast and move to the Western and ists, on the freedom of expression and con-
22,000 members t~roughout the country. Southern parts of Turkey? What kind of Tela- ,science, on human rights ?rg~nizations and
So far, the IHO ~ efforts have not been tions do they have with the Turkish commu- on democraticmass orgamzatlOns and even
costless. Many ,of ItS l1)embers have been nities there?, on political parties.
prosecuted by courts because of state~ents Are they confronted with hostile feelings, Whenever the PKK terrorist activities
they made on the, state of ~.um::lnflght.s. can they findjobs easily.and can they fit i~to intensify, o~ficials.8.!'eready with the most
Some IHP executlyes! especially those In the society Withsome minor problems which undemocratic retahatl?nplans and undemoc- '
the Kurdish secesslOmsm struck southeast have nothing to do with resentment of the tatie recommendatIons of new laws or
Turkey, have been killed. The murder Kurds? ,amendments to bring back the implementacas~s
are'still unsolved., "These observations and questions concern tion of capital punishment and more severe
Eighteen branch offices of t~e ~ssocla- some of the toughest human rights problems. punishments as we see even today.
tion in the East and Southeast have been in Turkey, and what is more devastating is, However, in spite of these grim facts,
closed for the lime being, mainly because the fact that no one is doing anything offi- deaths, murders; misery and sadness, there is
of threats received by the members. ' cially to resolve such problems which may in a tremendous attempt by, the democratic-
The association was recently awarded, the future lead to new violations arid prob- minded in Turkey te;>stop all of these viola-
ECU 100,000 by the European Union as a lems' ,like' theone in former tions. "
contribution to its activities toward a better Yugoslavia.' " "," .' " Whether this democratlc atte!TIptwill su~standard
of human rights. Everybody talks about huma~ fights In ,ceed or not largely rests on t~e JOintand um-
40
Turkey, but the concrete human nghts. prob- versal efforts of the human nghts movement
lems continue due to lack of democratlC leg- throughout the world. '