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"2019 was a year when the most basic rights of freedom of expression, organization, assembly and demonstration were limited and banned to a considerable extent. The judiciary was the leading tool of pressure."
The Human Rights Association (İHD) released its 2019 Report on Human Rights Violations in Turkey today (May 5).
"The regime has got more and more authoritarian in Turkey in the last five years," the İHD has commented and added that "it was a period when the official ideology was attempted to be put into full force."
According to the data compiled and shared by the İHD Documentation Unit, the number of people who alleged that they were subjected to torture or maltreatment in and outside detention was 1,477 in 2019.
Moreover, law enforcement officers intervened against 1,344 meetings and demonstrations last year and 3,935 people claimed that they were subjected to beating and ill treatment during these interventions.
Featuring the subheading "The Resistance of Social Opposition Against the Insistence on Authoritarian Rule," the 23-page report of the İHD has grouped the violations of rights in following categories:
Perpetuated State of Emergency, right to life, torture and ill treatment, prisons, Kurdish question, right to personal liberty and freedom of expression, freedom of organization and pressures on human rights organizations and defenders, freedom of assembly and demonstration, violations of right to vote and to be elected, problem of violence against women, refugees / asylum seekers / immigrants, economic and social rights.
'State of Emergency order was still in effect'
"The 2019 report on rights violations shows that the struggle for human rights and democracy will increasingly continue," the İHD has noted in the conclusion to its report and shared the following observations:
"Declared on July 21, 2016, the State of Emergency regime was ended on July 19, 2018. However, with the law no. 7145 dated July 31, 2018, the State of Emergency was, in a sense, extended for 3 years. Hence, 2019 was also a year when the State of Emergency order was still in effect.
"Despite the deadlock of the Kurdish question and the ongoing armed conflicts, the Co-Mayors of Kurdish-majority Diyarbakır, Van and Mardin Metropolitan Municipalities were removed from office and governors were appointed as trustees in their place on August 19 after the local elections on March 31, 2019, which has emerged as the most typical characteristic of an authoritarian regime that has caused the will of the people and, thus, the elections, to be declared null and void.
"The policy of appointing trustees continued in 2019 and 2020 in such a way to include not only the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), but the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) as well.
"The stance assumed by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) against the gravity of Turkey's problems of democracy and human rights was a case in point. The necessary could not be done even for the verdicts of violation given for Selahattin Demirtaş and Osman Kavala.
"Drifting away from the principle of rule of law, the ECtHR constantly pointed at the Constitutional Court in order to prevent new applications, which has manifested the decay in the protection of human rights values."
'Nine people lost their lives in "stop warnings"'
The report has also documented the extrajudicial killings of law enforcement officers in 2019. According to the report, nine people lost their lives and 16 people were wounded in random fires opened by the officers or on the ground that they did not abide by their stop warnings.
The report has also shared the following figures:
"440 people in total, including 98 security officers (soldiers, police, village guards), 324 militants and 18 civilians, lost their lives as a result of armed conflicts. 233 people in total, including 206 security officers (soldiers, police, village guards), 1 armed militant and 26 civilians, were also wounded.
"3 people, including one child, lost their lives and 2 children got wounded after being hit by armed vehicles of security forces.
"3 people, including 2 children, lost their lives and 5 people, including 2 children, were wounded in explosion of mines, unclaimed bombs, etc.
"At least 69 people lost their lives and 4 people got wounded in prisons for a series of reasons such as illness, suicide, violence, etc.
"At least 17 people suspiciously lost their lives and 5 people got wounded while they were on their mandatory military service or active duty."
There are 294 thousand arrestees, convicts in prisons
The report has also shared the following information as to prisons:
"According to the data of the Ministry of Justice, there were 59,429 prisoners in prisons of Turkey on December 31, 2002, when the AKP came to power.
"According to the statement made by the Ministry of Justice during the Parliamentary debates on 2020 budget in December 2019, there were 294 thousand arrestees and convicts in 355 penal institutions. It was indicated that around 11 thousand of these arrestees and convicts were women. No exact figures on arrestees and convicts were shared.
"While there are 3,100 convicted and arrested children, 780 children are behind bars with their mothers.
"According to the latest statement made by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) on December 5, 2019, the number of people in penal institutions increased by 14 percent and reached 264,842 as of December 31, 2018." (AS/SD)
* Click here to read the full report (in Turkish)
