HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE KURDISH REGION OF TURKEY: THREE PRESSING CONCERNS FACT-FINDING MISSION REPORT
The Kurdish Human Rights Project (KHRP) organized a fact-finding mission to the Kurdish region of Turkey from 1 to 7 May 2009 to gather information on the human rights situation there, with a particular focus on impunity of state officials, women’s access to justice and restrictions on the work of human rights defenders. The mission interviewed local MPs, mayors, human rights activists, lawyers and journalists in the provinces of Şırnak, Siirt, Mardin, Batman and Diyarbakır in order to assess developments in these areas in recent months.
Broadly speaking, the human rights situation in the Kurdish region of Turkey remains profoundly troubling. This fact was underlined in the aftermath of the local elections in March 2009, with the detention or investigation of hundreds of pro-Kurdish politicians and activists. It is also borne out by statistics prepared by KHRP’s partner organisation İnsan Hakları Derneği (Human Rights Association of Turkey, İHD), which in the course of 2008 in the province of Siirt alone, recorded 77 reported cases of torture and ill-treatment and more than 380 instances of violationsof the right to freedom of expression.1 In addition to ongoing human rights violations such as these, the Turkish authorities have also continued to fail in their responsibility to effectively address the widespread abuses of the recent past. This issue was again brought to the fore in the first half of 2009 by excavations of wells alleged to contain the remains of some of the many who ‘disappeared’ at the height of the conflict in the region in the 1990s... CONTENTS
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS / 11
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY / 13
I. GEOPOLITICAL BACKGROUND / 15
II. LEGAL FRAMEWORK / 19
1. Domestic Law / 19
2. EU Reforms / 23
3. International Law / 25
III. IMPUNITY OF STATE AGENTS / 27
IV. ACCESS TO JUSTICE FOR WOMEN / 37
V. HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS / 45
CONCLUSION / 53
RECOMMENDATIONS / 55 I. GEOPOLITICAL BACKGROUND
Since the inception of the modern republican state in Turkey in 1923, following the downfall of the Ottoman Empire, the country’s religious, linguistic, ethnic and cultural minorities have been systematically marginalised and suppressed. Under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the state instigated a lengthy process of reform designed to move Turkey away from its previous ‘Arabised Ottoman identity’ towards a new ‘Turkish Nationalism’. The Kemalists advocated a unified Turkish state based on one people and one language, in an attempt to convert an ethnically heterogeneous population into a homogenous body of Turkish citizens. This process involved the suppression of the religious identity and cultural expression of non-Turkish people within Turkey, particularly the Kurds, the country’s largest non-Turkish minority who were a majority in the south-east. At the heart of Atatürk’s project was the dissolution of this cohesive community. This led to a campaign of mass exile and village destruction in the Kurdish region, which continued until 1946.
Amid ongoing widespread and systematic oppression of the Kurdish people by Turkish security forces, the Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan (Kurdistan Workers’ Party, PKK) emerged in the 1970s, an era ravaged by political instability and turmoil. From 1984 until 1999, the state and the PKK fought a brutal armed conflict which claimed tens of thousands of lives... HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE KURDISH REGION OF TURKEY: THREE PRESSING CONCERNS
FACT-FINDING MISSION REPORT
BY EDEL HUGHES AND SANIYE KARAKAŞ
AUGUST 2009
KURDISH HUMAN RIGHTS PROJECT
BAR HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE OF ENGLAND AND WALES
Kurdish Human Rights Project
11 Guilford Street
London
WC1N 1DH, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 207 405-3835
Fax: +44 (0) 207 404-9088
khrp@khrp.orgwww.khrp.org
The Kurdish Human Rights Project is an independent, non-political human rights organisation
founded and based in London, England. A registered charity, it is dedicated
to promoting and protecting the human rights of all people in the Kurdish regions of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria and elsewhere, irrespective of race, religion, sex, political persuasion or other belief or opinion. Its supporters include Kurdish and non-Kurdish people.
Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales
Garden Court Chambers
57-60 Lincoln’s Inn Fields
London, WC2A 3LS, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 7993 7755
Fax: +44 (0) 207993 7700
bhrc@compuserve.com
www.barhumanrights.org.uk
The Bar Human Rights Committee is the international human rights arm of the Bar of England and Wales. It is an independent body primarily concerned with the protection
of the rights of advocates and judges around the world. It is also concerned with defending the rule of law and internationally recognised legal standards relating
to the right to a fair trial. The remit of the BHRC extends to all countries of the world, apart from its own jurisdiction of England and Wales.
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Keywords: Arbitrary arrest and detention, detention, disappeared persons, discrimination, extrajudicial executions, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, freedom of expression, human rights, inhuman treatment, Kurds, fact-finding missions, torture, Turkey, violence against women.
Printed in Great Britain
August 2009
Published by KHRP (London)
978-1-905592-25-8
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