From: Press Agency Ozgurluk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Sat, 17 Mar 2001 21:12:19 +0100 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: "[Ozgurluk.Org]" TP on Torture in Turkish Prisons 11 March, 2001, Turkish Probe issue 425, Copyright © Turkish Daily News Tension Rises, Torture Escalates TIHV Chairman Onen: Western countries are viewing F-types as a reform and support it within this framework. They are thinking that the Turkish government had spent $60 million to reform their prisons. They are believing that F-type prison provides better humanitarian conditions and saying that hundreds of inmates were staying together in anti-humanitarian conditions in the wards system. The Western world's focus is technical, but they fail to see conditions that are special to Turkey TIHV Treatment and Rehabilitation Centers Coordinator Bakkalci: The pressure and violence that has dominated Turkey since August caused a boom in the number of torture incidents. TIHV issued alerts in August and October. We have received hundreds of applications to our centers mostly from inmates' families. And in December, the applications reached immense figures. During this period Turkey experienced a number of negative events and violence turned into a social fact Esra Erduran Religious holidays are times of peace and understanding. During the holidays wishes are made and those who are at odds resolve their disagreements. It is a time of expectation and hope. Unfortunately, holidays are not powerful enough to sweep away the harsh realities. Torture is a big problem in Turkey. It is known that there is widespread and systematic torture in the country. There are state institutions such as the Parliamentary Human Rights Commission which is struggling to prevent torture. And there are human rights associations working under difficult conditions and pressures. The Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TIHV) is among the country's respectable nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) fighting torture and other human rights abuses. According to data prepared by the TIHV Documentation Center, the number of applications to the Treatment and Rehabilitation Centers doubled in January. In 1999, a total of 686 people had applied to the five centers established by the TIHV. In 2000, the number of applications reached 1,003, and in the first month of 2001, TIHV has witnessed a dramatic increase in the number of applications. Istanbul ranks first and the notorious Diyarbakir is last in the number of torture complaints in January 2001. Dr. Metin Bakkalci, coordinator of the Treatment and Rehabilitation Centers, said in an exclusive interview with the Turkish Daily News that the TIHV does not directly correlate the number of tortured people in Turkey with the number of people that applied to their centers. But the increase in the number of applications is still an indicator that reveals Turkey's present human rights record. Talking about the possible reasons for this rapid increase, Bakkalci named several factors. "Our treatment centers are becoming more known everyday. This is an important factor. The majority of those who apply to our centers are people known as political inmates although we are giving aid to all people who are tortured. And those who are known as political inmates have a natural solidarity," Bakkalci said. He also pointed out the fact that Turkey had gone through a devastating period in recent months. Turkey needs a brand-new prison system Talking about F-type prisons, TIHV Chairman Yavuz Onen pointed out the importance of the problems of prisons in Turkey. "Turkey is notorious for its prisons. The TIHV's main concern for discussing F-type prisons is to open a new dimension for this problem. The F-type prison system is based on the isolation of people. The cell system aims at the transformation of identity via education," Onen stated. Onen said they have a totally different inmate perception. "We believe that an inmate is a human being with a social personality. In this point our views are conflicting with the present archaic system," he added. In this point the TIHV is having difficulties in explaining their reasons why they are opposed to the F-type prisons, especially to Western coun "It is hard to explain our opposition to Western countries as they are not aware of Turkey's conditions. Western countries are viewing the F-types as a reform and support it within this framework. They are thinking that the Turkish government had spent $60 million to reform their prisons. They are believing that the F-type prison provides better humanitarian conditions and saying that hundreds of inmates were staying together in anti-humanitarian conditions in the wards system. The Western world's focus is technical, but they fail to see conditions which are special to Turkey," Onen said. Onen agreed that Turkish prisons are overcrowded and insufficient, and due to the economic and social problems of the country the crime rate in Turkey will continue to rise. But he claimed that the prison system is not only related to buildings but is also a social and humanitarian question. "There is a security problem in Turkish prisons; in others words, there is an insecure environment in the prisons. We have seen many examples of this. Specially trained squads and gendarmes storm into prisons and kill people. The recent "Operation Return to Life" had claimed the lives of 32 people," Onen stated. On Dec. 19, security forces stormed 20 prisons throughout Turkey to force more than 200 leftist prisoners to end their two-month hunger strike to protest plans to transfer them from dormitories to small prison cells. In the aftermath of the government's move, transfers to the high security F-type prisons have began. Onen said that Turkey lacks legal mechanisms that prevent security forces from applying pressure or committing violence on inmates. "Cases against security personnel either last too long or end up without a conviction. In this light they act as they want to; they kill inmates and they are not questioned," Onen said. Turkey has been discussing the newly-built, high-security F-type prisons. The government believesthese new prisons, having one or three inmate rooms, are a way to regain power and control at the prisons. It is saying that overcrowded prisons having wards hosting scores of inmates have ecome indoctrination centers for gangs. "Western countries agreed that no government will accept the establishment of another authority in its prisons. However, there is a big lie here. If another authority that is different from government emerges in an institute affiliated to the state, this can only be possible either by the permission of the government or because the govhut its eyes on the problem," Yavuz Onen stated. He also said that government negligence for years is the reason of this troublesome situation in Turkish prisons. "However, inmates pay tht showed it as a reason to explain the deaths of inmates in theis a seldom seen application. They are not taking inmates to doctors if they suffer from any kind of illness. It is an indirect torture method," Yavuz Onen said. "After the Sept. 12 military coup, inmates were forced to chant the national anthem repeatedly and to memorize Mustafa Kemal's address to the Turkish nation. The prison administration was giving obligatory religion lessons to atheists, and some inmates having differing political views were forced to live in the same ward. These are serious practices of torture," Onen said. Feray Salman, the coordinr of the TIHV Documentation Center, said that torture had been applied in prisons in Turkey and it will be a lot easier to apply torture in the F-type prisons. "In the ward systems, it was possible to known from the ward when torture is inflicted, but in the F-type system no one can be sure when or who took which inmate. "Or you cannot be sure if his electricity is turned off or not. These are all anti-human and fit the definition of torture," Salman said. -- Press Agency Ozgurluk In Support of the Revolutionary Peoples Liberation Struggle in Turkey http://www.ozgurluk.org DHKC: http://www.ozgurluk.org/dhkc _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
