Country of origin information report Turkey March 2007

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8.39 As reported on 31 December 2005 on the website of the gay group Kaos GL (quoting 365Gay.com):
“Turkish LGBT rights groups have appealed to the European Union to investigate the treatment of a gay pacifist jailed for refusing to serve in the military. In a letter to the Members of the European Parliament the groups - Kaos, Lambda Istanbul, and Rainbow Antalya - say that Mehmet Tarhan is facing an anal examination to prove he is gay. There are allegations that prison guards have encouraged other prisoners to repeatedly beat, humiliate and threaten Tarhan with death, even in front of his lawyer. He was first jailed on April 8 [2005]. When he appeared in court in June human rights observers said Tarhan could not walk properly and his body was covered in bruises.” [96a]
8.40 Kaos GL also reported that:
“Under Turkish military law homosexuality is considered a psychosexual disorder and those who have this ‘pathology’ are considered ‘unfit to serve’ in the Turkish Armed Forces. But, exemption from military service on the grounds of homosexuality is an [sic] extremely difficult and humiliating. One is required to submit photographs or videos graphically displaying sexual intercourse with another man and/or submit to an anal examination that supposedly yields proof of passive anal sex. Even so there is no guarantee of being exempted from service.” [96a]
8.41 On 10 March 2006 Turkish War Resisters International reported that conscientious objector Mehmet Tarhan had been unexpectedly released from military prison in Sivas, following an order of the Military Court of Appeal in Ankara who had to deal with appeals against the decision of the Sivas Military Court from 15 December 2005.
“The court gave as reason that, in case Mehmet Tarhan would be finally sentenced, the sentence would unlikely be higher than what he had already served…The decision is a surprise, because normally the Court of Appeal does not have the power to order the release of a prisoner - it can only refer the case back to the military court, and judge on the validity of a ruling by a military court. After his release from the military prison in Sivas, Mehmet Tarhan was brought to the recruitment office in Sivas, where he was given an order to present himself to his military unit. Mehmet Tarhan did not follow this order, and is presently visiting his family. This means that soon he will be officially classified as ‘deserter’, and could be re-arrested any time. The procedure is very similar to the case of Osman Murat Ülke, who recently won his case at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. It can be assumed that the Court of Appeal reacted to the pressure created by the decision of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Osman Murat Ülke… Mehmet Tarhan is now in exactly the same situation. Although released from prison, he faces a ‘clandestine life amounting almost to ‘civil death’, unless Turkey finally recognise [sic] the right to conscientious objection and solves a backlog of almost 80 existing conscientious objectors.” [53b]