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The Kurds of Turkey: Killings, Disappearances and Torture


Editor : Human Rights Watch Date & Place : 1993, New York
Preface : Pages : 63
Traduction : ISBN : 1-56432-096-0
Language : EnglishFormat : 216x280 mm
FIKP's Code : Br. Ang. 1894Theme : Politics

The Kurds of Turkey: Killings, Disappearances and Torture

The Kurds of Turkey: Killings, Disappearances and Torture

Kurds in Turkey have been killed, tortured and disappeared at an appalling rate since the coalition government of Prime Minister Suleyman Demirel took office in November 1991.  In addition, many of their cities  have  been  brutally  attacked  by  security  forces,  hundreds  of  their  villages  have  been  forcibly evacuated, their ethnic identity continues to be attacked, their rights to free expression denied and their political freedom placed in jeopardy.
 
This  is  the  third  report  that  Helsinki Watch  has  issued  since  1988  on  the  plight  of  the Kurdish minority in southeast Turkey.1  It describes some of the events that have taken place since Prime Minister Suleyman Demirel's coalition government took office and  their effects on the Turkish Kurds in southeast Turkey.

By way of background, Helsinki Watch reported in 1988:
 
The Kurds -- there are some twenty million in the world today -- have never had a country of their own, although  they lay claim  to a  large region which they call Kurdistan and have shared a common language, religion and culture for thousands of years.  The oil-rich, mountainous region that the Kurds inhabit was carved up after World War I and parceled out to Turkey, Iran and Iraq.  Kurds are now living in all of those countries and, in smaller numbers, in Syria and the USSR.  The largest group of Kurds is in Turkey, but it is absent from Turkey's official census figures because the Turkish government denies the very existence of the Kurds, whom they refer to as "mountain
Turks." ...

Acknowledgments / i
Introduction / 1
Southeast Turkey / 6
  Abuses by security forces / 6
  Abuses by the Workers' Party of Kurdistan (PKK) / 11
Killings and disappearances / 14
  Killings in house raids / 14
  Killings of peaceful demonstrators / 14
  Disappearances / 15
  International standards for the use of lethal force / 15
  Suspicious killings / 17
 Torture / 23
  Suspicious deaths in police custody / 23
  Recent cases of torture / 25
    Istanbul / 27
    Ankara / 29
    Adana / 31
    Antalya / 31
  The government's steps to end torture / 36
 Law reform / 39
Political freedom / 42
Free expression / 45
  Freedom of the press / 45
  Freedom of assembly / 46
  Freedom of association / 47
Recommendations / 48
  To the government of Turkey / 48
  To the Workers' Party of Kurdistan (PKK) / 49
  To the government of the United States / 49
Appendix A / 51
Appendix B / 54
Appendix C / 55

Introduction

Kurds in Turkey have been killed, tortured and disappeared at an appalling rate since the coalition government of Prime Minister Suleyman Demirel took office in November 1991.  In addition, many of their cities  have  been  brutally  attacked  by  security  forces,  hundreds  of  their  villages  have  been  forcibly evacuated, their ethnic identity continues to be attacked, their rights to free expression denied and their political freedom placed in jeopardy.
 
This  is  the  third  report  that  Helsinki Watch  has  issued  since  1988  on  the  plight  of  the Kurdish minority in southeast Turkey.1  It describes some of the events that have taken place since Prime Minister Suleyman Demirel's coalition government took office and  their effects on the Turkish Kurds in southeast Turkey.

By way of background, Helsinki Watch reported in 1988:
 
The Kurds -- there are some twenty million in the world today -- have never had a country of their own, although  they lay claim  to a  large region which they call Kurdistan and have shared a common language, religion and culture for thousands of years.  The oil-rich, mountainous region that the Kurds inhabit was carved up after World War I and parceled out to Turkey, Iran and Iraq.  Kurds are now living in all of those countries and, in smaller numbers, in Syria and the USSR.  The largest group of Kurds is in Turkey, but it is absent from Turkey's official census figures because the Turkish government denies the very existence of the Kurds, whom they refer to as "mountain
Turks."
 
Repression  of  the  Kurds  in  Turkey  dates  back  to  Ataturk  and  the  establishment  of  the Turkish  Republic  in  1923.    In  that  year  the  Treaty  of  Lausanne  between  Ataturk  and  the  Allied powers conferred  international recognition on  the new Turkish state and carved up the  territory claimed by the Kurds, giving the largest portion to Turkey.  There was no mention of the Kurds in the document.    Indeed  the  sections  dealing  with  the  protection  of  minority  rights  apply  only  to Turkey's "non-Muslim minorities," not to the devoutly Muslim Kurds.  Between 1925 and 1939, there were constant  revolts and peasant uprisings  in  the Kurdish  regions of Turkey, exacerbating  the government's fears that the Kurds were striving for recognition as a nation and that they had ties to Kurds  in  other  countries.    Turkish  governments  have  used  harsh measures  in  their  efforts  to suppress  the Kurds and make  them assimilate.   The Kurdish  language, Kurdish schools, Kurdish publications, Kurdish associations, Kurdish names and Kurdish music are banned.   People have been sent to prison merely for acknowledging in public that there are Kurds in Turkey...

The Kurds of Turkey: Killings, Disappearances and Torture

March 1993
 
Helsinki Watch
 
A Division of Human Rights Watch

485 Fifth Avenue       
New York, NY 10017     
Tel: (212) 972-8400    
Fax: (212) 972-0905    

1522 K Street, NW Suite 910
Washington, DC 20005
Tel: (202) 371-6592
Fax: (202) 371-0124

Copyright: March 1993 by Human Rights Watch.
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
 
ISBN: 1-56432-096-0
Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 93-223310
 
Human Rights Watch/Helsinki (formerly Helsinki Watch)
Human Rights Watch/Helsinki is a nongovernmental organization established in 1978 to monitor and
promote domestic and international compliance with the human rights provisions of the 1975 Helsinki
Accords. It is affiliated with the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, which is based in
Vienna, Austria. Jeri Laber is the director; Lois Whitman is the deputy director; Holly Cartner and Julie
Mertus are counsel; Erika Dailey, Rachel Denber, Ivana Nizich and Christopher Panico are research
associates; Christina Derry, Ivan Lupis, Alexander Petrov and Isabelle Tin-Aung are associates; Zeljka
Markic and Vlatka Mihelic are consultants. Jonathan Fanton is the chair of the advisory committee and
Alice Henkin is vice chair.



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