‘20 thousand people detained at demonstrations in 4 years’

* Photo: sendika.org / Murat Bay

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

The Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV) has published a study titled "Closing the Street: Violations of Freedom Assembly and Demonstration." The study has revealed that freedom of assembly and demonstration was violated 4 thousand 771 times in Turkey in 2015-2019.

As a result of the interventions against the meetings and demonstrations, 20 thousand 71 people were detained, 662 people were arrested.

In the same period, lawsuits were filed against 4 thousand 907 people for reasons related to their exercise of their freedom of assembly and demonstration. 999 people were sentenced to 13 thousand 370 months in prison in total. 63 people were fined 268 thousand 235 lira in total.

While 4 thousand 450 people were subjected to the physical violence of law enforcement, 90 people were wounded by the shots fired by them.

A total of 160 people lost their lives in the attacks targeting meetings and demonstrations; while 19 of these deaths occurred as a result of the law enforcement's use of force, 141 people died in bomb attacks.

The highest number of violations were recorded in Ankara, İstanbul, İzmir, Diyarbakır, Malatya, Van, Adana, Kocaeli, Mersin and Mardin.

While 3 thousand 983 violations were witnessed at protest demonstrations, 358 were in political events, 124 in cultural, artistic and sports activities and 77 were witnessed during funerals and condolences. 229 violations happened as a result of general bans on meetings and demonstrations. 98 percent of them targeted outdoor meetings and demonstrations.

When considered by subjects, it was seen that the highest rate of rights violations happened during the protests against the discharges by Statutory Decrees and at the meetings and demonstrations about the Kurdish question. As for the groups most frequently facing the violations in this period, they were lawyers, politicians, association/union/chamber executives, artists, academics and press laborers, respectively. (HA/SD)