Turkey has become a place of torture

The Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV), the Human Rights Association (İHD) and the Human Rights Department of the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) issued a joint written statement and data on torture in Turkey on the occasion of June 26, the ‘International Day in Support of Victims of Torture’. Human rights organizations stress in their statements that there has been an alarming increase in violations of the ban on torture, stating that the entire country has become a site of torture as a result of the increasingly repressive and controlling rule of the current political government.

Significant increase in prison population

The report states that, according to the Ministry of Justice, in 2005 the number of prisoners in prisons was 55.870, but as of 1 June 2023 there are 357.572 prisoners in 407 prisons with a total capacity of 296.202. Thus, the number of prisoners and convicts has increased about 6.4 times in 17 years. Commenting on this increase, the report says: “All these findings and data are important to show that imprisonment has become an essential technique of governance for political power. Prisons in Turkey have always been places of intense torture and other ill-treatment. Especially in the period that began in July 2015 with Turkey’s re-entry into a conflict environment, followed by the suppression of the military coup attempt and then the declaration of the state of emergency, there has been an extraordinary increase in torture and ill-treatment practices against detainees and convicts in prisons.”

Highest number of torture cases in TIHV history

In its 32-year history, the TIHV has received the highest number of applications from torture survivors and their relatives. In 2022, a total of 1201 people applied to the TIHV on the grounds of torture and ill-treatment. The number of applications received so far for 2023 is 270. According to the TIHV, at least 5434 people, including 144 children, were subjected to torture and ill-treatment and 42 people were injured as a result of security force intervention during peaceful protests and freedom of assembly demonstrations in 2022.

Sick prisoners unlawfully kept in prison

As far as the TIHV has been able to ascertain, at least 65 prisoners died in prisons in 2022 as a result of illness, suicide, violence, neglect and similar causes. In the first five months of 2023, 10 people died from the same causes. In addition, data from the IHD, last updated on 29 April 2022, reveals that a total of 1517 people, 651 of them in serious condition, are sick prisoners. The report states that at least 83 prisoners died suspiciously in prisons in 2022. The joint statement includes the following observations on seriously ill prisoners: “In particular, the continued detention of persons who are terminally ill or whose state of health has become permanently incompatible with prison conditions is also considered to fall within the scope of the prohibition of torture”.

Police violence at protests and demonstrations

The organizations also report attacks and repression of peaceful assemblies and demonstrations, as well as a worrying increase in the use of torture and other ill-treatment by law enforcement officials in unofficial or non-custodial places of detention. They describe this issue in the following terms: “The right of assembly and demonstration, together with freedom of expression, is the foundation of a democratic society. Unfortunately, in recent years the exercise of this right has become the exception in our country, while intervention and prohibition have become the rule. Law enforcement violence against people exercising their right to peaceful assembly and demonstration, which has reached the level of torture and other forms of ill-treatment, has become almost normalized”.

Impunity leads to an increase in torture

Stating that the most fundamental reason for this level of torture is the existence of a very serious culture of impunity that is incompatible with the absolute nature of the prohibition of torture, the organizations determine that, first and foremost, the policies of impunity, which are trying to be turned into an ordinary rule, must be ended. They call on authorities at all levels to abandon discourse that praises and encourages torture and torturers, and to publicly and unequivocally condemn torture practices, in line with the recommendations of international mechanisms. “The documentation and reporting of torture should be carried out in accordance with the principles of the ‘Istanbul Protocol’, a UN document,” human rights organizations say, adding: “Allegations of torture should be promptly, effectively and impartially investigated by independent bodies, and international ethical and legal standards should be respected at all stages of the judicial process. Prisons should be opened to independent monitoring by human rights and legal organizations.”