‘People tortured in Turkey from age 5 to 70’

Click to read the article in Turkish

The Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV-HRFT) has released its 2020 Report on Treatment and Rehabilitation Centers.

Prepared based on the applications submitted to the Foundation, the report has shown that the age of the ones who complained about torture and maltreatment ranged from 5 to 70 in Turkey last year.

In 2020, which was marked by curfews, especially amid the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, the number of people who were subjected to torture and ill treatment on the street increased.

While 24.6 percent of Turkey's population were born in the Southeast and Eastern Anatolia, 62.6 percent of the ones who complained about being tortured and maltreated were born in these two regions.

According to the report, people from all segments of the society, regardless of their educational level and employment status, were subjected to torture and ill treatment. One out of every four people who applied to the TİHV-HRFT with such complaints were students.

İstanbul on the top of the list

The report has indicated that 605 applications in total were made to the TİHV-HRFT Representatives and Reference Centers in 2020.

While the number of people who applied to the TİHV to get support for practices of torture and ill treatment that they suffered or witnessed was 190 (31.4 percent) in İstanbul, the number of people who applied to the Van Reference Center was 128 (21.2 percent).

116 people (19.2 percent) applied to the Diyarbakır Representative, 78 people (12.9 percent) to the İzmir Representative, 58 people (9.6 percent) to the Ankara Representative and 35 people (5.8 percent) to the Cizre Reference Center in Turkey southeastern province of Şırnak.

In 2020, 572 people (94.6 percent) made an application about torture and ill treatment while 2 people (0.3 percent) applied about grave human rights abuses except for torture and ill treatment. 31 people (5.1 percent) applied as relatives of the tortured and requested treatment, rehabilitation and documentation from the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey.

12 (2 percent) of the experienced or witnessed incidents of torture were detected to have taken place outside Turkey.

Application about people as young as 5 years old

While 62.5 percent of the applicants were men, 36.5 percent were women and 1 percent were LGBTI+s.

The report has shown that 3.4 percent of the applicants about torture were concerning people aged younger than 18. "In 2020, people of all ages, from 5 to 70, were subjected to torture," the report has said.

'Due to political opinions, identity or actions'

Of the 562 people who applied to the TİHV-HRFT in 2020 and were tortured in Turkey, 507 (90.2 percent) said that they were taken into custody due to their political opinions, identities or actions.

The report has found that "despite the COVID-19 outbreak and the bans, the rate of people detained in open spaces and on the street increased to 61 percent in 2021 while the rate of people taken into custody from their homes dropped to 26.6 percent in this period."

According to the report, the places where the incidents of torture were more frequently observed were first streets and open spaces, then vehicles, security departments and police/gendarmerie stations.

At this point, the TİHV-HRFT report has underlined that the fact that the applicants were tortured in different units during their detention indicate the continuity and widespreadness of the act of torture.

It is also a striking finding of the report that at least four out of every 10 people (40.7 percent) subjected to torture faced sexual torture.

According to the report, one out of every four people detained in 2020 say that the failures to make forensic medical examinations and to issue reports about them violated their fundamental assurances in detention conditions and led to an environment suspectible to torture.

On the ones detained in 2020;

• 101 applications (46.8 percent) indicated that the law enforcement officers were not taken out of the room during the forensic medical examination,
• 129 applications (59.7 percent) indicated that the forensic physician did not listen to the complaints,
• 168 applications (77.9 percent) indicated that the forensic physician did not listen to the medical history,
• 195 applications (90.3 percent) indicated that the forensic physician did not carry out a proper medical examination,
• 173 applications (80.1 percent) indicated that the forensic physician did not carry out an examination in the light of complaints.

Average age of people subjected to torture: 10

According to the report, the average age of the 20 children subjected to torture in 2020 was 10 at the time of the incident. It was also indicated that the youngest person subjected to torture was 3 years old.

The report has also found that the mother language of all children who said they were tortured due to ethnic and political reasons was Kurdish and they were all subjected to torture in the East or Southeast.

While the incidents leading to the torture of 7 children were found to be "ethnic", it was defined as "political" for 6 children, "judicial" for 4 children, "other" for 2 children and "asylum seeking" for one child.

The report has noted that 10 children were detained at night (12 - 8 am):

The fact the detention and house raids faced by children mostly happened at midnight indicates that an arbitrary and de facto action was taken, rather than a legal one, and that the aims of intimidation and punishment came to the forefront. The information as to the legal processes indicates that the principle of the 'best interests of the child' was not observed in detaining children, they were subjected to arbitrary and extrajudicial practices, their procedural assurances were violated and no other option was used, other than the decision to restrict their freedom, which is expected to be the last resort.

(AS/SD)