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Amnesty International Report 2017/18

Republican People’s Party (CHP), which went 

ahead peacefully, provided a notable 

exception to this trend. Traditional May Day 

demonstrations in Istanbul were held outside 

the centre of the city, with the agreement of 

the major trade unions.

The annual Istanbul Pride march was 

banned for a third successive year on 

spurious security grounds. Police used 

unnecessary and excessive force, firing 

rubber bullets, and made arbitrary arrests, 

targeting small groups of people attempting 

to celebrate Pride. In November, the 

authorities in Ankara imposed an indefinite 

ban on events organized by lesbian, gay, 

bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) 

solidarity organizations ahead of a planned 

LGBTI-themed film festival which was due to 

take place in the city. Again, the authorities 

cited spurious security reasons.

In June and July, more than 200,000 

people took part in a 400km “Justice March” 

between Ankara and Istanbul. The march 

was announced following the conviction and 

sentencing to 25 years’ imprisonment of CHP 

parliamentarian Enis Berberoğlu; he had 

been charged with espionage after passing 

on to journalists a video that purportedly 

showed the transfer of weapons to Syria in 

National Intelligence Organization trucks. In 

October, his conviction was overturned on 

appeal and a retrial ordered.

TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT

Instances of torture and other ill-treatment, 

especially in police custody, continued to be 

reported, although at a markedly lower level 

than in the weeks following the July 2016 

coup attempt. The Turkish authorities 

continued to deny permission for the 

European Committee for the Prevention of 

Torture to publish its report on torture 

allegations following the coup attempt. There 

was no effective national preventive 

mechanism with a mandate for monitoring 

places of detention. There were no available 

statistics regarding investigations into 

allegations of torture. There was no evidence 

that allegations of torture were being 

effectively investigated.

In August, NGOs reported that soldiers and 

police officers beat at least 30 people in the 

village of Altınsu/Şapatan in Hakkari province 

in southeast Turkey following a clash with the 

PKK in which two members of the security 

forces died. Witnesses reported that villagers 

were taken out of their homes, arbitrarily 

detained and beaten in the village square, 

and that 10 of them were taken into police 

custody. Images of the villagers’ injuries 

resulting from their beatings were shared on 

social media. A statement from the 

Governor’s office denied the allegations of 

torture, and maintained that news reports 

supporting the allegations were “terrorist 

propaganda”.

IMPUNITY

In the face of extreme political pressure, 

prosecutors and judges were even less 

inclined than in previous years to investigate 

alleged human rights violations by law 

enforcement officials or bring to justice those 

responsible. Intimidation of lawyers, including 

detentions and the bringing of criminal cases 

against them, further deterred lawyers from 

bringing criminal complaints. No progress 

was made to investigate pervasive allegations 

of human rights violations during round-the-

clock curfews in the southeast of Turkey 

during 2015 and 2016. More than five years 

after Turkey’s ratification of the Istanbul 

Convention to Combat Violence against 

Women, its implementation remained flawed, 

and reports of violence against women 

continued to rise.

In April, the trial of a police officer accused 

of killing Berkin Elvan began in Istanbul. 

Berkin Elvan died of his injuries after being 

hit by a tear gas canister at the scene of a 

Gezi Park protest in June 2013. The 

investigation had been severely delayed by 

the failure to obtain CCTV footage from the 

scene.

More than two years after the fatal shooting 

on 28 November 2015 of Tahir Elçi, human 

rights lawyer and Chair of the Diyarbakır Bar 

Association, no suspects had been identified. 

Delays or failure to obtain CCTV footage 

continued to hamper the investigation.

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In July, the government submitted 

information in regard to 34 cases brought to 

the European Court of Human Rights; these 

cases involved alleged violations of the right 

to life, prohibition of torture and the right to 

liberty and security in the southeast of Turkey 

during the curfews in 2015 and 2016.

The organization We Will Stop Femicide 

reported that murders of women were 

increasing, while media attention to such 

cases declined. It reported that 392 women 

had been killed in the year up to 25 

November.

ABUSES BY ARMED GROUPS

Abuses by armed groups continued, although 

the number of indiscriminate attacks, and 

attacks targeting the general population, was 

lower than in recent years.

In January, 39 people were killed and over 

70 injured after a gunman opened fire in a 

popular nightclub in Istanbul. The armed 

group Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility 

for the attack.

Also in January, two people were killed and 

10 injured by attackers targeting the İzmir 

Courthouse. The Kurdistan Freedom 

Falcons (TAK), an offshoot of the PKK, 

claimed responsibility for the attack.

In June, the PKK claimed responsibility for 

the killing of Necmettin Yılmaz, a teacher, 

after his kidnapping from the province of 

Tunceli/Dersim in southeast Turkey.

SUMMARY DISMISSALS

Under emergency decrees, public sector 

workers continued to face summary dismissal 

for alleged unspecified links to terrorist 

groups. Nearly 20,000 workers were 

dismissed during the course of the year, 

bringing the total number since July 2016 to 

107,000. Many workers were effectively 

prevented from continuing their professions, 

and struggled to find other jobs after being 

branded “terrorists” as a result of their 

dismissal. In January, the authorities 

announced a seven-person appeal 

Commission to assess the dismissals. The 

Commission was not established until July, 

and at the end of the year had ruled on fewer 

than 100 of the reported 100,000 appeals 

submitted to it. There was widespread 

criticism that the Commission lacked the 

necessary independence and capacity to 

carry out the task. In June, rejecting the 

Köksal v. Turkey application as inadmissible, 

the European Court of Human Rights ruled 

that there was no reason to believe that the 

Commission would not be an effective 

remedy. The decision of the Court left the 

door open to a future reassessment by the 

Court of the effectiveness of the Commission.

INTERNALLY DISPLACED PEOPLE

Many of the estimated 500,000 people 

displaced from their homes in areas under 

the curfews across the southeast of Turkey in 

2015 and 2016 lacked access to adequate 

housing and livelihoods. Many were unable to 

return to their homes that had been 

destroyed during or after military operations 

during which state security forces clashed 

with armed individuals affiliated to the PKK. 

The authorities lacked a comprehensive plan 

as to how the residents would be able to 

return to their homes.

In the Sur district of Diyarbakır, residents 

who had already been displaced from their 

homes during the curfew lost their homes a 

second time when they were forcibly evicted 

as part of a redevelopment scheme affecting 

the whole district. In May, hundreds of 

residents had their water and electricity 

supplies cut off in an apparent attempt to 

force them out.

REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS

Turkey continued to host one of the world’s 

largest refugee populations, with over 

3,300,000 registered Syrian refugees alone. 

Despite new initiatives to improve the 

situation of refugees, many faced insufficient 

access to livelihoods, housing, health care, 

and education for their children. Except for 

Syrians, refugees did not have access to fair 

and efficient procedures for the 

determination of their status. There were 

continued reports of forced returns of 

refugees and asylum-seekers, including to 

Syria. International humanitarian NGOs 

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