Country of origin information report Turkey March 2009

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8.08 The US State Department (USSD) report 2007 noted that “On February 6, parliament amended the Law on the Duties and Competencies of Police to significantly expand the authority of security forces to search and detain a suspect. Under the amended law, police and Jandarma may compel a citizen to declare his identity without any cause. In a June 5 press release, the Human Rights Association (HRA) stated that the expanded authority was contrary to legal and civil rights. On June 22, the newspaper Radikal noted a rise in mistreatment and torture allegations in Istanbul following enactment of the law.” [5g] (Section 1d)

8.09 The US State Department (USSD) report 2007 report noted that “During the year [2007] human rights organizations documented a rise in cases of torture, beating, and abuse by security forces. Security forces committed unlawful killings… There continued to be reports of security forces fatally shooting civilians who refused to obey a warning to stop… Courts investigated many allegations of abuse and torture by security forces during the year; however, they rarely convicted or punished offenders. When courts did convict offenders, punishment generally was minimal and sentences were often suspended. Authorities typically allowed officers accused of abuse to remain on duty and, in occasional cases, promoted them during their trials, which often took years.” [5g] (Section 1-1d)
8.10 The same USSD 2007 report further noted that “The Ministry of Justice reported that it opened 45 torture cases during the year, involving 298 suspects and a total of 178 victims. The suspects comprised 263 police, 15 Jandarma, and 20 other public servants. The justice ministry reported that it opened 34 excessive force cases during the year, involving 65 suspects and 49 victims. The suspects comprised 56 police, seven Jandarma, and two other public servants.” [5g] (Section 1c)
8.11 The Amnesty International (AI) Annual Report 2008 stated that:
“Investigations into human rights violations perpetrated by law enforcement officials remained flawed and there were insufficient prosecutions… In June, parliament amended the Law on the Powers and Duties of the Police, giving police further powers to use lethal force by allowing them to shoot escaping suspects if they ignore a warning to stop. In April, all four police officers tried for killing Ahmet Kaymaz and his 12-year-old son Uğur outside their home were acquitted. The officers said that the deaths were the result of an armed clash, but forensic reports showed that both victims had been shot at close range several times.” [12e]
8.12 The Amnesty International (AI) Annual Report 2008 further stated that:
“Allegations of torture and other ill-treatment continued, especially outside official places of detention. In June, Mustafa Kükçe died after being detained in several different police stations in Istanbul. Relatives who identified his body said that it was apparent that he had been tortured before his death. No case was brought against police officers. Lawyer Muammer Öz was allegedly beaten by police officers while drinking tea with family members in the Moda district of Istanbul. An official medical report failed to show that his nose had been broken in the attack. Muammer Öz told Amnesty International that police beat him with batons and their fists and told him that they would never be punished.” [12e]
8.13 The Human Rights Watch (HRW) World Report 2008, published on 14 January 2009, stated that:
“Police torture and ill-treatment is on the rise since 2007. It occurs during arrest,

outside places of official detention, and during demonstrations, as well as in

detention centers. There were continuing reports of ill-treatment and cruel, inhuman, and degrading conditions in prisons, and of fatal shootings of civilians by police officers. Engin Ceber, age 29, died in a hospital in Istanbul on October 10 after being beaten in police custody and in prison.” [9e]
8.14 The same HRW 2008 World report further noted that:
“During banned Newroz (Kurdish new year) celebrations in March, police used

excessive force, including indiscriminate beatings, against demonstrators and

children; and two people in Van and one in Yüksekova were shot dead. Police beat demonstrators indiscriminately at a May Day protest in Istanbul, and used excessive force to disperse all peaceful assembly in and around the offices of the trade union confederation DİSK. The absence of a meaningful domestic investigation into the violence precipitated DİSK to apply in August to the European Court of Human Rights. The application was pending at this writing.” [9e]

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Other government forces
Jandarma / Gendarmerie
8.15 Jane’s Sentinel Country profile, updated 7 May 2008, noted that “The Gendarmerie (Jandarma) is a paramilitary force that carries out police functions in rural regions. It is charged with the preservation of public order and internal security, including border security, in an area which covers over 91 per cent of the territory of Turkey. The General Command headquarters is located in Ankara… The force has its own intelligence section, Jandarma Istihbarat ve Terörle Mücadele (Gendarmerie Intelligence and Anti-Terror or JITEM), which is primarily used for intelligence gathering against the PKK. Until recently there was no official acknowledgment that JITEM existed, allowing members of the organisation to operate without fear of legal sanction.” [81c]
8.16 ‘Turkey Interactive 2007’, prepared by the Turkish News Agency for the Office of the Prime Minister of Turkey and accessed 4 August 2008, noted that “The Gendarmerie performs its duties in areas outside the municipal borders and in district centers where there is no police force. Approximately 24 million citizens, corresponding to almost 33% of the population, live in the responsibility areas of the gendarmerie and this figure increases to 48 million people (65% of the population) during summertime... Every province in Turkey has a gendarmerie provincial command administering a number of gendarmerie district commands equal to the number of districts.” [36a] (p170)
8.17 As recorded on the website of the General Command of Gendarmerie, updated on 6 August 2008: “The Gendarmerie of The Republic of Turkey, which is responsible for the maintenance of safety and public order as well as carrying out other duties assigned by laws and regulation, is an armed security and law enforcement force, having military nature…In accordance with Act No 2803 on ‘The Organization, Duties and Powers of The Gendarmerie’, the duties of the gendarmerie fall in four main points as administrative, judicial, military and other duties…The administrative duties cover the activities preventing crime in order to perform the protection, watching, safety and public order.” [99] (Section on Duties)
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Village guard
8.18 In correspondence from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office dated 2 July 2007 regarding the Laws amending the village law no: 5673 and its adoption date 27 May 2007, it was noted that:
“ARTICLE 1- The second paragraph of the Village Law of 18/3/1924 with no: 442 has been amended as follows;

In provinces to be determined by the Cabinet; in cases where circumstances which call for declaration of state of emergency and where severe signs of violent actions arise in villages or in their neighbourhood, or in case of any infringement of life and property of the villagers for whatsoever reason, it can be decided upon the proposal of the Governor and approval of the Minister of Interior to appoint enough number of temporary village guards. The number of temporary village guards to be appointed under these circumstances can not exceed 40.000. The Cabinet shall be entitled to increase this number by up to fifty per cent. In case the circumstances which call for appointment of village guards are no more applicable or in case of administrative necessity, the appointment of temporary village guards can be ceased in line with the due procedures regarding such appointments.” [4a]

8.19 In the same correspondence the FCO further noted that, “The temporary village guards shall be paid throughout the course of the service a monthly salary equivalent to a multiplication of monthly coefficient applicable to the salaries of public officers, by an indicator of 11.500…The boarding of the temporary village guards who participate in operations along with the security forces shall be born by the units under which those security forces operate and from the budget of these units… Additonal article16- The duties of temporary village guards who have completed the age of 55 shall be terminated… Being convicted from a terrorist offense, temporary village guards or their widow(er)s shall not be able to receive any pension.” [4a]
8.20 The US State Department (USSD) report 2007 noted that “On May 27, parliament passed a law overhauling the village guard system. The law limits the total number of village guards under normal circumstances to 40,000; provides that the Council of Ministers may increase this number by up to 50 percent; provides continued employment for current guards; establishes a mandatory 55-year retirement age; provides a partial salary for early retirement; provides for a pension to guards who served more than 15 years; and requires the Ministry of the Interior to establish procedures for hiring, firing, training and otherwise regulating the guard system.” [5g] (Section 1d)
8.21 The USSD 2007 report noted that “According to government officials, the law is intended to gradually phase out the system while providing social support for the 63,000 current village guards.” [5g] (Section 1d)
8.22 The European Commission Turkey 2007 Progress Report, published 6 November 2007, recorded that “No steps have been taken to abolish the system of village guards… The village guard system still has to be phased out.” [71d] (p28)
8.23 Jane’s Sentinel Country profile, updated 21 January 2008, noted that “The Village Guards, formally known as 'Temporary Village Guards', were set up in 1985 as a local defence force in areas where a state of emergency had been declared due to the PKK insurgency. The majority are ethnic Kurds. The original idea was that they would patrol their own villages, but they were also used in offensive military operations against the rebels. The Village Guards usually operate alongside units from the Gendarmerie and/or regular army, often using their knowledge of the local terrain to serve as guides and their language skills to facilitate intelligence gathering, as well as participating in combat.” [81c]
8.24 Jane’s Sentinel Country profile, updated 21 January 2008, further noted that “they receive arms and basic training from the Gendarmerie and come under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Interior, which also pays their wages. As of 2007, some 58,000 Village Guards were deployed in 35 eastern and south-eastern Anatolian provinces… In addition to full-time Village Guards, there are also around 25,000 Volunteer Village Guards who have been provided with arms by the Turkish state to protect their villages in the event of attack by the PKK. However, the Volunteer Village Guards neither receive a wage nor participate in offensive operations against the PKK.” [81c]

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Torture
8.25 According to the Turkish Constitution, the use of torture is prohibited, everyone has the right to life and the right to protect and develop his material and spiritual entity. Article 17 states that “no-one shall be subjected to torture or ill-treatment; no-one shall be subjected to penalty or treatment incompatible with human dignity.” [36e]
8.26 The US State Department (USSD) report 2007, published on 11 March 2008, noted that:

“According to the HRA (Human Rights Association) and Mazlum-Der, there were 451 incidents of torture in the first six months of the year. The HRF reported that during the year 452 persons applied to ’HRF’s centers for assistance. Of these, 248 cases involved torture or abuse inflicted during the year; the rest involved incidents that occurred previously. HRF stated that there were 10,449 credible reports of torture or abuse from 1990 to 2005. A number of human rights observers claimed that only a small percentage of detainees reported torture and abuse because they feared retaliation or believed that complaining was futile.” [5g] (Section 1c)

8.28 The Grand National Assembly’s Commission for Inspection of Human Rights published their 2009 Inspection report which published the statistics on official investigations into personnel accused of torture from 2003 to 2008:

Year	Number of personnel officially investigated	Number of cases opened	Number of cases ongoing	Cases dismissed	Acquittals	Number of personnel punished	Decision type	Number of people involved in ongoing cases
2008	14	-	-	14	-	-	-	-
2007	93	4	3	79	1	-	-	12
2006	53	4	3	34	5	-	-	14
2005	79	5	3	50	9	-	-	20
2004	85	8	4	50	12	-	-	23
2003	107	14	1	63	37	-	-	7
Total	431	35	14	290	64	-	-	76

[117]
8.29 The 2009 Inspection report added that “As the illustration above shows, from 2003 to 2008, individual cases were opened against 35 of the 431 Istanbul police personnel against whom official investigations were started for claims of torture. 14 of these cases are still ongoing and 64 people have been acquitted, 290 had their cases dismissed and 76 persons have been tried. No personnel at all have been punished. This situation necessarily opens the way to doubts regarding the effectiveness of the investigations.” [117] (p61)
8.30 The 2009 Inspection report further noted that:
“From 2003 to 2008, 448 official investigations were launched for the offence of Exceeding of Limits concerning the Maltreatment of Other Persons or the Use of Force. In these investigations concerning 1,588 police officers or commanders, 256 indictments were served, decisions were made regarding 963 of these personnel that there were Insufficient Grounds to Prosecute, and 188 of these personnel are still involved in the trial process. The number of personnel punished is 19, or approximately 4%.” [117] (p77)
8.31 The Human Rights Watch (HRW) World Report 2008, published on 14 January 2009, stated:
“Turkish courts continued to show excessive leniency toward police and other

members of the security forces charged with abuse or misconduct, contributing to impunity, the persistence of torture, and the unwarranted resort to lethal force. There was no progress in bringing to justice members of security forces responsible for the deaths of 30 prisoners during a series of prison transfers in December 2000. Two soldiers also died during the operation. In June 2008 the trial of soldiers for illtreatment and of guards for misconduct during transfer from Bayrampaşa prison, where 12 of the prisoners died, exceeded the statute of limitations and collapsed.” [9e]

8.32 The same HRW World 2008 report also noted that:
“On October 20, 2008, the “Ergenekon” trial began. Over 100 defendants—including retired military and gendarmerie personnel, figures associated with organized crime, journalists, and academics—are charged with participating in an ultranationalist conspiracy to foster a military coup through civil disturbance, violent attacks, and planned assassinations. The criminal investigation was triggered by the June 2007 discovery of hand grenades in the Istanbul house of a retired army officer. Related grenades had been used in two attacks on the newspaper Cumhuriyet in May 2006, perpetrated by the same gang responsible for the April 2006 attack on the Council of State that killed a judge. While there are doubts that the criminal justice system is sufficiently empowered or independent to deal effectively with the case, it provides an unprecedented opportunity for Turkey to confront the negative role in political life played by elements of the military and state.” [9e]
8.32 The European Commission (EC) Turkey 2008 Progress Report published 5 November 2008 recorded that: “During the reporting period, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) delivered a total of 266 judgments finding that Turkey had violated the ECHR. Similarly to last year, the total number of new applications to the ECtHR continued to increase, with 3,705 applications during the reporting period. The majority of these new applications concerned the right to a fair trial and protection of property rights. Few of them concerned violations of the right to life or torture and ill-treatment.” [71d] (p11)
8.33 The EC 2008 Progress report on Turkey also noted that: “The legal safeguards introduced by the government's zero tolerance policy on torture are having a positive effect. However, the number of appeals to NGOs concerning cases of torture and ill-treatment, in particular outside official places of detention, has increased. Pending ratification of the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against torture, there is no independent national mechanism in place for monitoring places of detention. Furthermore, more efforts are needed to fight impunity.” [71d] (p68-69)
See access to justice Annex D.
8.34 The EC 2008 Progress report on Turkey further noted that:
“However, the number of applications to NGOs in relation to cases of torture and ill-treatment has increased, in particular outside official places of detention, notably during apprehension, transfer, or in the open with no detention registered. Furthermore, there are cases where the legal safeguards in place failed to prevent or stop the occurrence of torture and ill-treatment while in custody or in prison. These developments are a matter of concern.” [71d] (p13)

Turkish Armed Forces (Türk Silahli Kuvvetleri, TSK)

8.35 The Turkish General Staff website, updated on 13 June 2008, noted:
“The Armed Forces of the Turkish Republic having great geopolitical and geostrategic importance comprise the Army, Navy and Air Force that are subordinate to the Turkish General Staff. The General Command of Gendarmerie and the Coast Guard Command, which operate as the parts of internal security forces in peacetime, are subordinate to the Land and Naval Forces Commands, respectively in wartime… General Hilmi Özkok the 24th Commander of the Turkish Armed Forces retired on 30 August 2006 and the 25th Commander of the Turkish Armed Forces is now Yaşar Büyükanıt.” [106] The 26^th new Commander of the Turkish Armed Forces is now Ilker Başbuğ. [115]
8.36 As recorded in Europa World online, Turkey: Defence (website accessed on 7 August 2008): “The total strength of the active armed forces assessed at November 2007 was 510,600 (including 359,500 conscripts), comprising an army of 402,000, a navy of 48,600 and an air force of 60,000. There was a gendarmerie numbering 150,000 and a coast guard of 3,250 (including 1,400 conscripts). Reserve forces totalled 378,700 in the armed forces and 50,000 in the gendarmerie.” [1b] (Turkey: Defence)

Discrimination in the armed forces
8.37 The War Resisters’ International 2005 document stated that “There have been regular reports of Kurdish conscripts in particular being subjected to discriminatory treatment, especially when they are suspected of having separatist sympathies. Different sources make different assessments of the extent to which Kurdish conscripts face discriminatory treatment within the armed forces.” [53a] (Section on Draft evasion)
8.38 An Amnesty International public statement, dated 8 February 2007, stated: “Amnesty International is deeply concerned at reports that on 26 January 2007 conscientious objector Halil Savda was ill-treated by military personnel in the disciplinary ward of the military barracks in Tekirdağ where he had originally been summoned to perform military service.” [12f]
See also Section 9:10 Conscientious objectors (Vicdani Retci)


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Extra-judicial killings
8.39 For the year 2007, the Human Rights Association (HRA/IHD) Summary table for Human Rights Violations recorded:

EXTRA JUDICIAL EXECUTIONS	Deaths	Wounded
Killed and injured by security forces in Stop Warnings, and violation of authority on arm use by officials	29	23
Killed and injured by Village Guards	5	4
Total	34	27

[73b]
8.40 The Human Rights Association further noted the human rights situation from 1999 to 2007 as:

Human Rights Situation in some Rights Categories between 1999 and 2007

Violations	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Unknown killings	212	145	160	75	50	47	1	20	42
Doubtful deaths/deaths in custody because of extra judicial execution/torture paid guard village	205	173	55	40	44	47	89	130	66
Death in clashes	857	147	92	30	104	240	496	345	424
Torture and Ill-treatment	594	594	862	876	1202	1040	825	708	678
People who taken into custody	50318	35007	44181	31217	12406	9711	2702	5560	7197
Arrests	2105	1937	2955	1148	1196	774	621	1545	1440

[73a]
8.41 The Amnesty International (AI) report ‘No justice for victims of torture and killings by law enforcement officials’, noted 5 July 2007 that:
“Torture, ill-treatment and killings continue to be met with persistent impunity for the security forces in Turkey, Amnesty International said in a report published today. The investigation and prosecution of serious human rights violations committed by officers of the police and gendarmerie are flawed and compounded by inconsistent decisions by prosecutors and judges. As a result, justice for the victims of human rights violations is delayed or denied. The criminal justice system needs reform. It needs to firmly put the protection of the human rights of citizens above that of the perceived interests of state institutions and officials.” [12a]
8.42 The Human Rights Watch (HRW) World Report 2008, published on 14 January 2009, noted:
“Against a background of escalating armed clashes between the military and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), attacks on civilians continued. Attacks included a suspected PKK bombing in Diyarbakır on January 3, killing six (four of them children); bombings on July 27 in Istanbul, killing 17; and on July 9 outside the US consulate in Ankara, killing six. In the latter two cases the identities of the perpetrators remain unclear.” [9e]
See also Section 9: Military service