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February 1, 2009
NEWS
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Deadlock and the human rights situation
Kurdishaspect.com - By Ibrahim Bilmez
At last year’s conference we discussed where Turkey was in terms of humanitarian law. Unfortunately there is not much of a change. Although the AKP government have made some quick cosmetic changes, the human rights situation in Turkey is definitely not looking bright.
One would wish to talk about positive developments and the steps that have been taken in terms of democratization and human rights. Yet, in 2008 there have been immense violations on the issue of human rights. Instead of searching for a permanent solution to the problems, the AKP government continued with their hard-headed approach. The reform process that had started during the EU membership process halted in 2005 and any developments rapidly reversed, due to the government’s decision not to solve the Kurdish issue, but instead intensify the cross border operations. These kinds of developments caused the violations of the fundamental rights such as the right to life, freedom of thought and freedom of expression.
A report published by the Human Rights Association Diyarbakir Branch highlights this. According to the organisations` report, in 2005 there were 7,499 reported violations, in 2006, 7,499 reported violations and in 2007, 18.479 reported violations in the Kurdish areas. In 2008 that figure rose to 35.992.
The situation in terms of the right to life, which is the core of the rights and freedoms, is not very promising. Legal changes in 2007 gave more power to the police force and as a result violence committed by the police and gendarmerie has increased massively. During the Newroz celebrations in 2008, hundreds of woman and children were badly beaten in front of the TV cameras. Members of the police force fired on the crowd and five civilians were killed. Women and children were arrested and some of those children have been sentenced for up to 25 years in prison.
It is not very meaningful to talk about the human rights situation in a country where there is no guarantee of the right to life. Kurds still face problems when expressing themselves in the mother tongue. While these atrocities are going on, the government has launched a public television channel that broadcasts in the Kurdish language. This is just before the local elections, and can be assumed to be a tactic to get the votes of the Kurds as well as improving the government’s position with regards to the EU. Yet one should not be blind to the possibility of the TV channel being used as a propaganda tool espousing the official ideology of the government. And there are still obstacles and difficulties for private television channels wanting to broadcast in Kurdish. Prisoners still are not allowed to talk to their families in Kurdish. The mayors who wrote New Year cards in Kurdish face trials. According to the law governing political parties, the parties are still are not permitted to use any other languages apart from Turkish. In the TBMM (The Grand National Assembly of Turkey) sections of some speeches of DTP members that were in Kurdish are recorded as being spoken in ``an unknown language``. The legal obstacles for education in Kurdish as a mother tongue still exist. The root of the problem is that Kurdish and the existence of the Kurds are denied. If the government launched the Kurdish channel after the elections, Kurds would perhaps welcome it as a more sincere step. In addition to this, there are more important steps to be taken than opening a channel, for example Turkey is still not a signatory of the European Regional and Minority Languages Agreement. Kurds rightfully become suspicious of the goodwill of the government in the wake of the increase of human and civil rights violations in 2008. Kurds are experienced in the ways of the government policies and it seems that the Kurds are not convinced and will not be drawn in by the manipulations of the government.
Always being at the heart of any debate on the Kurdish issue, my client Mr Abdullah Ocalan`s imprisonment conditions seem to run parallel with the general negative overview of Turkey’s progress. As human rights violations increased in 2008, the kind of treatment that my client received also became increasingly brutal. Mr Ocalan has been the sole inmate in a prison that is kept totally isolated from the outside world for nearly ten years. In November 2008 he received cell punishments ten times and Mr Ocalan now faces new cell punishments. These cell punishments as well as the isolation that my client faces are an unbearable torture for him. Ocalan receives these punishments as a result of expressing his opinions on the solution of the Kurdish problem during the limited meetings with his lawyers. These punishments give the message to my client that ``You cannot think and express what you think``. In October 2008, our client was subject to a physical attack and received a death threat from the prison authorities. Ocalan is watched for 24 hours by the cameras, his cell has been raided, he is sworn at, insulted, and furthermore threatened with being killed. Such incidents, as my client believes, are the responsibility of the government.
Once the treatment of Ocalan was made public, Kurds took to the streets to protest. This resulted in violent intervention by the police with hundreds of people taken into custody and many people sent to prison. The reaction of the public indicates once again their sensitivity to the Ocalan issue. The question that needs to be asked is how can those who lead Turkey act in such a way when the Kurds are so sensitive on this issue and can they not comprehend that such treatments do not serve to solve the issue?
As I indicated at last years’ conference, Mr Ocalan stresses in his defence that the violence on both sides must end; according to Ocalan it is clear that the problem cannot be solved by violence. What needs to be done is to pave the way for an honourable and just solution. Our client has never been hesitant to play his role for such an initiative. On 1 September 2006 on the International Peace Day, intellectuals, various political parties and NGOs called on the PKK to declare a ceasefire. My client also supported such calls and as a result of these calls, the PKK declared a unilateral ceasefire. Yet due to operations by the army, the conflict started again and the ceasefire was broken. Unfortunately still to this day the violence continues costing the lives of both soldiers and guerrillas.
As I have indicated at the beginning of my speech, violence is detrimental to society in Turkey and to the daily lives of its citizens. For Turkey to be a state of democratic values, it is necessary for her to take the initiative to end the violence. Turkey also needs to be willing to face her past. However not in the way that we are seeing in the Ergenekon Case, where recent developments in the trials show that the case will proceed within the accepted framework of both the army and the government. The Ergenekon case could easily identify the ‘unidentified’ murders in the past as well as the deep state organisations. The best way to proceed, as my client has also suggested on many occasions, is by setting up a `Truth and Reconciliation Commission`, as had been done in South Africa and some American countries; for people from across the spectrum to discuss different past experiences. It is never too late; however, the state would need to decide to make peace with its Kurds.
Courtesy of Mezopotamian Development Society
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