HRFT Human Rights Foundation of Turkey Human Rights Report
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HRFT Human Rights Foundation of Turkey 1998 Human Rights Report Human Rights Foundation of Turkey Publications (21) Prepared by: HRFT Documentation Center Cover Design: Özlem Ölçer Printing & Binding: Pelin Ofset Ltd. Şti., Ankara HUMAN RIGHTS FOUNDATION OF TURKEY Menekşe 2 Sokak 16/6-7 Kızılay, 06440 - Ankara/TURKEY Tel: (90-312) 417 71 80 Fax: (90-312) 425 45 52 e-mail: [email protected] www.tihv.org.tr ISBN 975-7217-25-5 The Human Rights Foundation of Turkey was founded under the Turkish Law. It is a non-governmental and independent foundation. Its statute entered into force by promulgation in the Official Gazette No. 20741 on 30 December 1990. HRFT Human Rights Foundation of Turkey 1998 TURKEY HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT Ankara, 2000 This report was prepared and printed with the financial support of the Swedish Support Committee. CONTENTS TURKEY HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT - 1998 FOREWORD: HUMAN RIGHTS IN 1998, Yavuz Önen, President of HRFT ................. 9 PREFACE, Selim Ölçer, Secretary General of HRFT ............................................................. 15 1. INTRODUCTION: Turkey in 1998 ...................................................................................... 18 1.1 The 28 February Process: Relations between NSC and the Government ........................ 20 1.2 Official Initiatives on Human Rights ............................................................................. 28 1.3 Human Rights and International Relations .................................................................... 32 2. SUSURLUK SCANDAL: Counter-guerilla Affairs ............................................................... 39 2.1 Susurluk Report and Reactions ........................................................................................... 39 2.2 Measures Taken by the Government .................................................................................. 55 2.3 Reactions by the Citizens .................................................................................................... 60 2.4 Trials and Investigations ..................................................................................................... 62 2.5 Mafia, Politics and Business World .................................................................................... 76 3. THE KURDISH PROBLEM AND THE STATE OF EMERGENCY .............................. 86 3.1 The Kurdish Problem .......................................................................................................... 90 3.2 State of Emergency Practices .............................................................................................. 100 3.3 The Kurdish Problem and the PKK .................................................................................... 105 4. ENFORCED MIGRATION .................................................................................................... 121 a) The Rulings of the European Court of Human Rights ........................................................ 122 b) The Commission in the Parliament to Investigate Enforced Migration ......................... 128 c) Evacuated and Burnt Down Villages ................................................................................... 132 d) Other Pressures Against Villagers ........................................................................................ 142 e) Discriminatory Practices against Enforced Migrants ........................................................ 146 f) Initiatives for the “Return to the Village” ........................................................................... 150 g) Problems of Involuntary Migrants ....................................................................................... 152 h) Forced Migration and Right to Asylum ............................................................................... 156 5. THE RIGHT TO LIFE ............................................................................................................... 160 a) Crime Organizations and the Right to Life ......................................................................... 161 b) The Authority to Use Gun ..................................................................................................... 163 c) The Rulings of the European Court of Human Rights ...................................................... 168 5.1 The Death Penalty ............................................................................................................... 176 5.2 Extra-Judicial Executions .................................................................................................... 189 5.3 Murders by Unknown Assailants ....................................................................................... 219 5.4 Land Mines and the Right to Life ....................................................................................... 232 5.5 Armed Organizations and the Right to Life ....................................................................... 240 6. THE RIGHT TO PERSONAL SECURITY ......................................................................... 267 a) Legal Provisions ...................................................................................................................... 268 b) Regulation on Apprehension, Detention and Interrogation .............................................. 271 c) Parliamentary Human Rights Commission ......................................................................... 274 d) The Prevention of Torture and the Problem of Immunity ................................................ 275 e) Forensic Medicine ................................................................................................................... 276 f) Wire-tapping and Registering People .................................................................................. 278 g) The Rulings of the European Court of Human Rights ...................................................... 280 6.1 Enforced Disappearances ................................................................................................. 286 6.2 Torture and Ill-treatment .................................................................................................. 304 a) Report by the HRFT Treatment and Rehabilitation Centers ............................................ 306 b) Deaths in Detention ................................................................................................................ 308 c) Deaths and Suicides after Torture ........................................................................................ 313 d) Torture on Children ................................................................................................................ 314 e) Sexual Torture ......................................................................................................................... 322 f) Torture in Raids into Villages and Houses ......................................................................... 326 g) Other Cases of Torture and Ill-treatment ............................................................................. 328 h) Cases of Abduction and Forcing to be Informers .............................................................. 338 i) Torture Trials ........................................................................................................................... 343 6.3 Human Rights in Prisons ..................................................................................................... 352 a) Deaths in Prisons ..................................................................................................................... 354 b) Health Problems in the Prisons ............................................................................................. 357 c) General conditions and pressures in the prisons ................................................................ 364 d) Trials in connection with the attacks in the prisons ........................................................... 372 e) Debates on General Amnesty ................................................................................................ 374 7. THE RIGHT TO FAIR TRIAL ................................................................................................ 375 7.1 Independence of the Judiciary ................................................................................................. 375 a) State Security Courts .............................................................................................................. 379 b) The Rulings of the European Court of Human Rights ...................................................... 385 7.2 Right to Defense ...................................................................................................................... 387 7.3 Means of Seeking One’s Rights .............................................................................................. 395 8. FREEDOM OF THOUGHT ..................................................................................................... 398 a) Legal Provisions ...................................................................................................................... 399 b) The Kurdish Problem and Freedom of Thought ................................................................ 403 8.1 Freedom of Expression ......................................................................................................... 406 a) Freedom of Expression .........................................................................................................