V. Police Violence against Demonstrators

Disproportionate use of force against demonstrators remains a regular occurrence in Turkey, and was in evidence once again in the first half of 2008. [80] The policing of demonstrations is undoubtedly a challenging task in contexts where some, most often a minority, of demonstrators may resort to violence, as is the case in some demonstrations in Turkey. However, recent instances indicate that the police response is still heavy handed and disproportionate, and often targeted at peaceful demonstrations. There is considerable evidence of a deterioration in the standard of policing of demonstrations in the past two years, and harsh intervention by police against peaceful demonstrators often seems to encourage a minority of demonstrators to engage in running battles. In the period February to April 2008, six unarmed individuals died as a result of injuries sustained during public meetings and demonstrations in the southeast and eastern regions of Turkey.

Cizre, Ş ırnak province, February 15

At a demonstration on February 15 marking the ninth anniversary of the capture of Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan, Yahya Menek ş e, age 16, died when he was crushed under a police vehicle (panzer) in the southeast town of Cizre in Ş ırnak province. In contrast to witness accounts, initial police accounts of his death attempted to conceal the circumstances by claiming that he had di ed as a result of being hit with a stone. The autopsy reports revealed otherwise. [81] Despite this, permission to investigate the police was refused by the district governor's office in Cizre. An appeal against this decision lodged by the lawyer acting for Yahya Menek ş e's family was upheld, and criminal proceedings have been launched against seven police officers to identify the driver of the police vehicle which crushed Menek ş e. [82]

Furthermore, the chair of the Diyarbakır branch of the human rights group the Association for Human Rights and Solidarity for the Oppressed ( İ nsan Hakları ve Mazlumler için Dayanı ş ma De rne ğ i, Mazlum Der) described to Human Rights Watch having seen around 20 of those who had been detained at the demonstration during which Yahya Menek ş e died and facing possible criminal charges waiting in the corridors of the court to testify before the public prosecutor and bearing clear indication s that they had been beaten whilst in the custody of the police. [83]

Erci ş , Van province, March 5

In the town of Erci ş in Van province, following a March 5, 2008 theatre performance held a few days in advance of International Women's Day at a public venue used to celebrate weddings, a gr oup walked towards the town centre shouting slogans. The security forces reportedly intervened to disperse the group using disproportionate force. Scores of people were injured and at least four witnesses afterward reported that they had seen Mehmet Deniz, age 58, being beaten with truncheons by a group of policemen. [84] Mehmet Deniz was reportedly detained at around 12:30 p.m. and held along with many others for around seven hours. He was transferred to hospital in Erci ş and then on to Van in the early evening and died in Van state hospital in the early hours of the next morning, March 6. An initial autopsy report recorded trauma to the brain leading to a haemorrage. [85] Mehmet Deniz was buried but, after efforts by lawyers representing his family who argued that the first autopsy report had not been conducted properly in the presence of the legally required minimum contingent of medical personnel, his remains were shortly afterward disinterred for a second autopsy report by the Istanbul Forensic Medical Institute.

This much fuller autopsy report recorded blows to the body and cracked ribs as well as head injuries, and thus provides further corroborating evidence that Mehmet Deniz died as a result of being beaten. The prosecutor's investigation continues. A lawyer representing Deniz's family expressed to Human Rights Watch his concern that the police were showing signs of failing to cooperate with the enquiry; for example, the police had supplied a list of police officers on duty that day in Erci ş , but scrutiny of video film taken during the incidents shows that list to be incomplete. [86]

One hundred and eight people were detained during the Erci ş incident on March 5, with 70 people being released without being brought before a prosecutor, and 38 being brought before a prosecutor. Of those 38, the prosecutor released around half pending trial and remanded around 16 to prison. The lawyer interviewed by Human Rights Watch expressed the view that most of those detained had been beaten by the police. He also said that the police violence was completely indiscriminate, often targeting bystanders and shopkeepers as well as those who shouted slogans or, later on as the tension escalated, had lobbed stones at the police. This lawyer gave the example of another client, Abdurrahman Güler, a shopkeeper in Erci ş , who had reportedly been apprehended as he attempted to escape from the teargas to splash water over his face in a nearby café. Güler claimed to have been repeatedly beaten in the head and face and sworn at as he was taken to the police station. He says he was beaten and trampled on by police officers while made to lie face down handcuffed in the police station. A medical report documented injuries consistent with his account, such as serious bruising to his face, mouth, and a broken tooth. [87]

Güler's account was similar to that provided by those interviewed by the Van bar, Human Rights Assocation, and Mazlum Der, who also reported the presence of police officers during medical examinations and a failure by doctors in some cases to record the evidence of beating or to provide treatment. Some individuals reported to representatives of the above organizations that they were sworn at while being beaten with formulations that demonstrated anti-Kurdish sentiment ("Leave this country, you bastards!").

Van and elsewhere, Newroz/Nevruz [88] 2008

The traditional Newroz/Nevruz celebrations, mainly celebrated by the Kurdish population in Turkey and taking place around March 21, were marred by violence in some cities when police used excessive force to break up demonstrations. While the celebrations passed successfully and without incident in cities such as Diyarbakır, the cities of Van, Hakkari, and Siirt were not so peaceful.[89] In the course of forcibly dispersing demonstrators and onlookers, police fired plastic bullets and live rounds. There were four fatalities in all. In Yüksekova, Hakkari, İkbal Yaşar died of chest wounds on March 23 sustained at the Newroz celebrations and Fahrettin Şedal died in Van hospital on April 11 from gunshot wounds in the stomach sustained at İkbal Yaşar's funeral on March 24. In Van, Zeki Erinç died on March 23 of gunshot wounds sustained in the stomach on March 22 at the Van Newroz celebrations, and Ramazan Dal died of gunshot wounds on April 1, 2008 in Van Yüzüncü Yıl University Hospital also sustained on March 22 in Van.[90]As of the end of September 2008, investigations into these deaths were reportedly continuing.

In Van, where detailed research and interviewing was carried out following the incidents, Human Rights Watch repeatedly heard the view expressed by local shopkeepers, members of human rights groups, and lawyers that the town had not experienced such a level of police violence in the past 10 years or more. The last Newroz at which demonstrators had been shot dead had reportedly been in 1992. There was a wide consensus that the force use had not been solely targeted at demonstrators but that the police had used excessive force against bystanders, including women and children. There was a general view too that a number of those severely injured by the police, including some with plastic bullet wounds, had not gone to hospital in Van for fear of finding themselves under police investigation. Around 190 people were detained at the time of the incidents, with around 40 remanded to prison pending trial. Van lawyer Bekir Kaya reported nearly a month later that there was still a tense atmosphere in the town as police were continuing to examine footage of the incidents and to detain individuals on charges of participation in an illegal demonstration, damage to public property, violently resisting the police, and for serious crimes carrying aggravated prison sentences falling under the remit of terrorism legislation (propaganda, aiding and abetting an illegal organization, etc.). "They watch film and detain people but this is fairly random because it's not always clear that people were actually doing anything," Kaya remarked. [91] It was repeatedly reported by all lawyers interviewed in Van that many people would choose not to file a formal complaint of police ill-treatment with the prosecutor because it would bring them to the attention of the police and work against them.

Precursor to the events in Van was a short-notice decision by the governor's office to ban the holding of Newroz celebrations arranged by an organizing committee at an assigned location on Saturday, March 22. The organizing committee had planned a program, invited outside speakers and singers for that day, and begun setting up a stage and finalizing arrangements at an agreed venue. The governor's office however insisted that the celebrations take place one day earlier, March 21, Newroz itself, which fell on a Friday and was therefore not favored by the organizers as it would be a day on which there would be reduced participation.

It would seem that the arbitrary decision to ban Newroz celebrations on March 22 was the beginning of a disastrous course of events, but one that the authorities apparently expected to head off by threats rather than conciliation. On the afternoon of March 20, the police chief of Van, Salih Kesmez, gave a press conference (also reportedly broadcast on a local television station news program) at which he announced that special firearms firing plastic bullets (F303 firearms), imported from Belgium, had just been delivered to the security directorate in Van. He was reported as remarking, "We made efforts for our directorate to have guns that can be used to render demonstrators ineffective before Newroz. But I hope there won't be a situation in which we have to use these guns." [92]

After being presented with the ban, the Democratic Society Party (DTP) announced its decision to read out a press statement in front of its Van provincial party offices on March 22 to mark Newroz, to condemn the ban, and then to disperse. [93] A number of people collected there that morning. It was reported by both a delegation present that morning from the Human Rights Assocation and a separate delegation from Mazlum Der that the first police intervention to disperse the group of around 250 people who had collected in front of the party building took place without warning and while officials of the DTP, local groups, and observers were still engaged in negotiation with officials of the security forces. [94]

A number of individuals were (to use police chief Salih Kesmez's words) "rendered ineffective" in Van on March 22. In addition to Zeki Erinc and Ramazan Dal , whose autopsy reports reportedly stated that they died from bullet wounds incurred from live ammunition, [95] many others were badly injured by plastic bullets. Among them was Gul ş ah Aslan, age 21. Nearly a month after the Newroz incidents Gul ş ah was resting in bed in her home when a Human Rights Watch researcher interviewed her an d her younger sister, Evindar. Gul ş ah had been shot in the chest and the rubber bullet had embedded in her shoulder; Evindar had been beaten with a truncheon. Gul ş ah recounted the following:

I left our house at about 10:30 or 11 and was on my way to visit my mother in hospital. I had just turned the corner to be faced with a police vehicle with masked special team men in it. They were firing indiscriminately and then one turned and aimed directly at me. [Evindar reported that some children had been throwing stones at the vehicle and had run away when it came towards them.] I thought I had been hit by a stone at first and then I remember saying to myself, "They've killed me." I was taken to a neighbor's house, but the special team men got out of the vehicle and followed us, broke the windows, and threw in a teargas bomb [canister]. My face was burning. When my sister Evindar rushed to open the door to the Special Team men fearing they would otherwise break it down, she was beaten with a truncheon and they threw her into the room where I was. We are all relatives, they beat everyone. There was blood everywhere. [96]

Gul ş ah was taken to hospital by car, had the bullet removed and had to have a blood transfusion. She spent 13 days in hospital. She filed a complaint to the prosecutor; at this writing the investigation is ongoing.

The Van Bar, Human Rights Association, Mazlum Der, Contemporary Lawyers' Association and Insan Der delegation interviewed nine individuals who had gunshot wounds (most assessed as being from plastic bullets).

A Human Rights Watch researcher visited Husnu Abi, a Van shopkeeper, at his home in the Hacibekir quarter of Van. He reported being shot in the head as he walked to his shop in the centre of town: "It was about 10 a.m. The police prevented us from passing. Everyone was gathering there and then a teargas cannister was shot from an armoured vehicle and the sound of shooting came. I suddenly fell down and I can't remember any more than that." [97] At the time of our interview, x-rays in Abi's possession showed fragments of what was either a plastic bullet case or a teargas canister still lodged in the back of his head, and a large wound in the back of his head was visible. Commenting that many people had not dared go to hospital because of the fear of reprisals from the police, he added that the police had wanted him to "give a statement" while he was in hospital but that his condition was so bad that he could not. Abi was preparing to lodge a formal complaint but, besides the x-ray film, did not have in his possession a medical report, despite having spent three weeks in hospital.

Human Rights Watch interviewed M.K. (born in 1992, name withheld), employed as an assistant on the Van-Hakkari minibus route. M.K. reported that when police officers entered the bus station in Van, he was chased by a group of around 10 officers and beaten with truncheons and the butts of firearms. He fell to the ground, attempted to get up, and was again repeatedly beaten. He was finally taken into the bus station office by some bus drivers and then sent home, where he stayed for some days. "I have difficulties sleeping, I keep seeing myself being beaten again and again, and I have had severe stomach pains," he told us. [98] The beating of M.K. was caught on amateur footage from a nearby location. [99]

M.K. and his father, Esat K. (full name withheld), a construction worker who returned from his work in Milas in western Turkey on hearing of the incident involving his son, filed a complaint to the prosecutor. At this writing an investigation is ongoing. Human Rights Watch was informed by Esat K. on May 29 that his son's psychological state and inability to "come to himself" and to return to work had prompted a decision to transfer him temporarily to the psychiatric ward of a local hospital for psychiatric treatment. [100] In subsequent months he spent further spells in a psychiatric hospital in Ankara and remains unable to resume work. [101]

Some of those who reported being severely beaten in Van chose not to file official complaints with the prosecutor. A member of the Human Rights Association mentioned as an example the case of one male student who had been kicked in the testicles, necessitating surgery to remove one testicle. [102] One possible motivating factor in him not pursuing a complaint was a desire to complete his studies at Van Yüzüncü Yıl University and avoid possible disciplinary investigation by the university authorities or criminal investigation by the police for participation in an unauthorized demonstration.

Human Rights Watch has not conducted the same close examination of the events at Newroz in Hakkari. However, we have followed one case, after television footage was widely broadcast of a plainclothes police officer in the street in Hakkari violently twisting the arm of a 15-year-old youth, C.E. (name withheld) behind his back. [103] Following this incident, C.E. was released, then on orders of the prosecutor re-arrested and remanded to the children's ward at Bitlis E Type prison, to be bailed on April 11 pending trial for participation in the demonstration. [104] An investigation by the public prosecutor into the incident in which his arm was twisted behind his back ended in late April with a decision that there was no case to answer (takipsizlik kararı). C.E.'s lawyer appealed against this decision to Van Heavy Penal Court No. 2. When the Van court turned down the appeal, the lawyer decided to bring a case to the European Court of Human Rights. [105]

The Parliamentary Human Rights Investigative Commission visited Van and Hakkari at the end of April to conduct their own investigation into the Newroz events, and released a report in November. Amongst other recommendations, the commission's report emphasized the need for effective investigation of the fatal shootings, and of allegations of ill-treatment and excessive use of force. The commission recommended further training of the police in public order policing and the wearing of helmets and uniforms with identifying ID visibly displayed. [106]

Istanbul, May 1, 2008

The spectre of violent policing was to reappear a few weeks later, in Istanbul, on the occasion of the traditional May 1 International Workers' Day. While the occasion generally passed well in cities like Ankara where a workers' rally was permitted, the Istanbul governor and the AKP government took the decision to ban any celebration of the occasion in Taksim Square. Celebration of May 1 has usually been banned in Taksim for the past 30 years, after the tragic incidents of May 1, 1977, when unknown perpetrators opened fire on the crowd, resulting in 34 deaths. [107] Statements made by the government and the Istanbul governor about the ban, and by the main trade union organizers of May 1 in Istanbul who emphasized that they would assemble and march to Taksim, have been well documented in the press. The governor in particular emphasized that the police would resort to force if necessary to disperse an illegal demonstration if demonstrators went ahead and attempted to convene in Taksim. [108]

The build up to the day itself was tense, yet it is unlikely that anyone would have been able to predict the serious turn in events, which effectively on May 1 saw the police prevent groups from assembling in Istanbul and launch direct attacks on the main trade union involved in organizing the march and gathering. At 6:30 a.m. the police began to disperse a crowd assembled outside the Ş i ş li headquarters of the Revolutionary Workers Trade Unions Confederation (Devrimci İ ş ç i Sendikaları Konfederasyon, D İ SK), using water canons, teargas, and batons. They then proceeded to raid D İ SK's offices. In the course of the day the D İ SK offices were reportedly raided several times between 6:30 and 10 a.m., with the police throwing teargas canisters into the building and beating people with truncheons. D İ SK and the other trade union confederations Türk- İ ş and KESK annou nced that they would launch legal proceedings on the grounds that the government had violated the fundamental principles of the right to assembly, in contravention of International Labour Organization (ILO) standards and Turkey's obligations under international law. Having decided that the investigation into the incidents was ineffective, D İ SK and KESK started a case before the European Court of Human Rights on August 14. [109]

One journalist also told Human Rights Watch that in a separate incident he had witnessed a police officer throw a teargas canister into the entrance of the canteen at the Ş i ş li Etfal Hospital and that this had badly affected patients, relatives, and those working in the hospital. In an official press conference on May 1, the governor of Istanbul had strongly refuted this allegation-and many other allegations that th e police had used excessive force-without examining the evidence or hearing witnesses. [110]

Focusing in particular on the use of force by the police, Human Rights Watch interviewed a number of those who attempted to celebrate May 1 and alleged that they were attacked by the police and beaten.

Gürol Ş im ş ek, an official for the trade union Tarım Orkam-Sen (Tarım ve Ormancılık Hizmet Kolu Kamu Emekçileri Sendika, the union for agricultural and forestry workers), and his nephew Rahmi Yılmaz (born 1981) described how they were attacked and bea ten by a team of five or six plainclothes police officers whom they passed on Tarlaba ş ı boulevard at around 12:30 p.m. Ş im ş ek and Yılmaz were on their way back from attending speeches by a delegation including parliamentarians gathered outside the Republica n People's party headquarters in Ş i ş li. Rahmi Yılmaz, who works in a pizza restaurant, reported that he was beaten on the back of the shoulders and head with a cudgel, lost his balance and fell to the ground. Gürol Ş im ş ek was hit with a truncheon or cudgel o n the head and on the right ear and when he had fallen over was kicked in the mouth. Neither of the two were detained after this reportedly unprovoked attack and, with Ş im ş ek bleeding profusely from the mouth, the two made their way to the Taksim First Aid hospital where Ş im ş ek received five stitches to the lip and further stitching inside his mouth, and Yılmaz was given a tomography scan. Yılmaz reported to us that he had problems with his sense of balance and temporary loss of feeling in the left arm, and Ş im ş ek reported experiencing flashbacks to the moment when he was kicked in the mouth. [111]

After they had been forcibly dispersed with teargas and water canon, some demonstrators and journalists reporting on May 1 took refuge in the garden of offices of the newspaper Cumhuriyet in Ş i ş li. Two Cumhuriyet journalists were beaten. Ali Deniz Uslu, a reporter on Cumhuriyet's Sunday supplement, was beaten with a truncheon as he entered the newspaper's premises. He had his right arm broken as he attempted to shield his face, later had to undergo surgery, and with an arm in plaster for weeks was, at the time we interviewed him in June, severely impeded from carrying out his work at the newspaper. [112] Esra Açıkgöz, another Cumhuriyet Sunday supplement reporter, told us that she was beaten by several police officers in turn in the street near the newspaper. She recounted that she had attempted to escape the beating, produced her press card and shouted to the police, "I'm a journalist," but that this achieved nothing and she was struck on the head several times more by passing police officers. [113] The journalists informed us that on May 5 they had lodged formal complaints with the prosecutor's office complaining of "intentional injury" (Turk ish Penal Code article 86/1) and violation of the liberty to work (article 117/1). They had directed their complaints not only against the officers directly responsible but also against senior officers, the Istanbul governor, the Interior Minister and the Prime Minister.

However, there is currently no criminal investigation into the police for the ill-treatment of either of the two journalists. A decision dated August 13 issued by the Bahçelievler district governor's office withheld permission for criminal investigation of two police officers. Permission was withheld on the grounds of a July expert report that stated there was not proof that the named officer had been responsible for breaking the arm of Ali Deniz Uslu and that neither of the two journalists had come forward to give statements to the prosecutor. [114] As discussed previously, the Law on the Trials of Civil Servants and other PublicOfficials (Law no. 4483) is still being used to block investigation into allegations of police violence , and it is disgraceful that it should be invoked yet again in this instance. It is clear from the many rulings of the European Court of Human Rights that this is a blatant violation of Turkey's obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights, and in particular its obligation to carry out independent and effective investigations into allegations of ill-treatment.

Elsewhere that day, members of the rapid deployment force of the police (known as the Çevik Kuvvet) attacked the Istanbul provincial headquarters of the socialist Freedom and Solidarity Party (Özgür ve Dayanı ş ma Partisi, ÖDP) and a group of people who had gathered outside the building. Around 300 people were in the building or had gathered outside it at around 1 p.m. At around 2;15 p.m., a team of around eight members of the police rapid deployment force launched an attack on the group, approaching from steps from a neighboring street, beating members of the crowd with truncheons, and throwing three teargas canisters into the building and firing at least two plastic bullets. [115] District chair of the Ö DP Sinan Tutal described the effect inside the building as overpowering: "Teargas filled the entire building. Everyone was on their knees. Some people were throwing up. Our friends broke the windows of the upper floors, and this may have saved us." Behçet Erta ş , an ÖDP member who runs a café in the Esenyurt district of Istanbul, reported that he was beaten and kicked in the street outside the building: "I fell over and I think fainted when I was beaten by a police truncheon. I raised my he ad to see a police officer turn back to kick me in the face." Erta ş suffered a broken nose and heavy bruising to the body and was taken by ambulance to the Taksim First Aid hospital, where he had surgery to correct the broken nose the following day. [116]

On July 28, 2008, Minister of Justice Mehmet Ali Ş ahin responded to a parliamentary question tabled by Republican People's Party deputy group chair Kemal Anadol on the progress of criminal and administrative investigations into police violence on May 1 in Istanbul. Justice Minister Ş ahin reportedly responded that to date, nearly three months after the incidents , the investigation by the Beyo ğ lu Public prosecutor was continuing, and that, " The statement of one police officer was taken, and no public official has been brought before a court." The minister also stated that the administrative investigation carried out by the General Security Directorate was continuing and that to date no police officer had been suspended from duty. [117]