Turkey’s public prosecutor denies claims of torture against detainees
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Following a deadly skirmish between Turkish police and Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters in Turkey’s southeastern province of Sanliurfa, authorities detained 47 people for terror related charges. A local human rights group blamed prison authorities for carrying out “torture and ill-treatment” on the detainees, that was later denied by the public prosecutor’s office.
“The judicial process on the detention and arrest of the suspects is carried out as per procedures and laws,” a statement from the public prosecutor’s office in the Kurdish province said, reported CNN Turk.
This followed a statement from the Turkish Human Rights Association’s (IHD) office in Sanliurfa that said a “large number” of people were detained in Halfet district’s Dergili neighborhood and later “tortured” by police.
“As per reports we have received and as per our lawyers, the detainees have been subject to torture and ill-treatment and each detainee is allowed to meet with only a lawyer,” read the statement.
They added that the detainees are entitled to have private meetings with lawyers but not under police supervision, claiming that this is not the case with the 47 detainees but against “human dignity.”
The arrests resulted from clashes between PKK and Turkish police on Saturday.
The Sanliurfa governor’s office said in a statement on Saturday that local police had conducted an operation against “PKK terrorist organization members” where two fighters of the group were “neutralized.”
The Turkish security forces and officials employ “neutralized” to refer to those killed, wounded, or otherwise removed from the battlefield.
The office also announced the death of a deputy police chief and injury of two police officers from Turkish side.
The PKK has not commented on the incident.
A photo has gone viral on social media which shows a group of people who lay on their chests on ground being surrounded by security forces. Other photos showed a house sprayed with bullet holes, and dead bodies on ground. Some commenters on social media have described the incident as “state terrorism.”
HDP: ‘Closely monitoring the barbarism’
Ayse Acar Basaran, who is the spokesperson of pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party’s (HDP) Law and Human Rights Commission, said in a statement on Tuesday that they are “closely monitoring the barbarism in Halfeti.”
Basaran said that the act of forcing the detainees - which she put at 38 - to lay on their chests with their hands cuffed is “shelving all anti-torture agreements signed by Turkey,” referring to agreements the country has with international community.
She cited Article 17 of the Turkish constitution which stipulates that, “No one shall be subjected to torture or maltreatment; no one shall be subjected to penalties or treatment incompatible with human dignity.”
“This article is being violated systematically and persistently in Halfeti”, the HDP official commented.
HDP’s Law and Human Rights commission is filing a lawsuit against “who are involved in the crime, given instructions to the special team, police or soldiers.”
Police raided HDP headquarters in Diyarbakir on May 9. They arrested seven people who were on hunger strike, calling for an end on PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan’s “isolation”. Ocalan has been held on an Imrali Island Prison for nearly two decades.
May 2 marked Ocalan's first meeting with his lawyers in eight years, and January was the first time he was allowed to receive a visitor in two years.
Thousands of people in and outside Turkey have gone on hunger strikes. Despite Ocalan’s meeting with lawyers on May 2, and the Kurdish leader imploring his supporters to not protest to the point of compromising their health, the hunger strikes persist.