The widespread and systematic use of torture in Turkey goes back to the Ottoman Empire. After the foundation of the Republic of Turkey, torture of civilians by the Turkish Armed Forces and Turkish police was widespread during the Dersim rebellion.Hüseyin Aygün, Dersim 1938 ve zorunlu iskân: telgraflar, dilekçeler, mektuplar, Dipnot Yayınları, 2009, The Sansaryan Han police headquarters and Harbiye Military Prison in Istanbul became known for torture in the 1940s. Amnesty International (AI) first documented Turkish torture after the 1971 Turkish coup d'état and has continued to issue critical reports, particularly after the outbreak of the Kurdish-Turkish conflict in the 1980s.The File on Torture that was included in the newsletter of September 1987 is available as images under File on Torture in Pictures The Committee for the Prevention of Torture has issued critical reports on the extent of torture in Turkey since the 1990s. The Stockholm Center for Freedom published a report entitled Mass Torture and Ill-Treatment in Turkey in June 2017.Mass Torture and Ill-Treatment in Turkey stockholmcf.org 6 June 2016 The Human Rights Foundation of Turkey estimates there are around one million victims of torture in Turkey.
History The history of torture goes back to the Ottoman Empire.Taner Akçam: Siyasi Kültürümüzde Zulüm ve İşkence (Oppression and Torture in our Political Culture), İletişim Yayınları 172, April 1992, The Committee of Union and Progress used the place known as the Bekirağa Bölüğü (Military Company of Bekir Agha) situated in the building that now houses the Istanbul University as a special torture place.Similar information (page 317 of the book) can be found in Tarihçesi ve Yaşayanların Anlatımlarıyla - İşkence - 1 (Torture 1 with History and Stories of Victims); Collected by: Ali Osman Köse , no printing date (Turkish); accessed on 24 October 2009 Almost all dissidents came here once. Deputy Rıza Nur was tortured here in 1910. He raised torture allegations in parliament. The demand to establish a commission to investigate the torture allegations was turned down by 96 against 73 votes.
After the foundation of the Turkish Republic in 1923 Sansaryan Han and the Harbiye Military Prison became the symbols for torture. Having been built in Sirkeci in 1895 Sansaryan Han became the police headquarters of Istanbul in 1944.See an article of Demirtaş Ceyhun in BİANET of 3 August 2009 (Turkish); accessed on 24 October 2009 People that were tortured here include poet and writer Attilâ İlhan, Nihat Sargın, former chair of the Workers Party of Turkey and poet Nâzım Hikmet. During the Racism-Turanism trials, 23 nationalists, including Nihal Atsız, Zeki Velidi Togan, Nejdet Sançar and others, were tortured between 1944 and 1945. In 1945 the military prison in Istanbul moved from Tophane to Harbiye. In one section 40 cells were built measuring 1,5 by 2 metres.Tarihçesi ve Yaşayanların Anlatımlarıyla - İşkence - 1 (Torture 1 with History and Stories of Victims); Collected by: Ali Osman Köse , no printing date (Turkish); accessed on 24 October 2009 Alleged members of the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) were held here as well as the 40 of 49 Kurds that had been detained in 1959 (:de:Prozess der 49). They were held here for 195 days. Twenty-four prisoners allegedly died because of the bad conditions they had been held in. In Harbiye Military Prison members of the extreme right Grey Wolves (ülkücü) were tortured after the 1980 Turkish coup d'état.See an article of Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu published on 20 September 2009 (Turkish); accessed on 24 October 2009 Besides bastinado (falaka) and rough beatings, prisoners would be held in narrow dark cells often called "coffin" (tabutluk) or isolation (tecrit).undated article of Ayhan Alemdar (Turkish); accessed on 24 October 2009
Torture after March 12 After the 1971 Turkish coup d'état torture was applied in police centres and centres of the Counter-Guerrilla that were jointly used by the secret service called National Intelligence Organization and the Special Warfare Department (Turkish: Özel Harp Dairesi, ÖHD). The torture methods included electric shocks applied by field telephones various forms of hanging, falaka, rape, sleep and food deprivation and torturing relatives in the presence of the suspect.
The military applied torture to political prisoners as a matter of policy.File on Turkey, issued by the Democratic Resistance of Turkey in August 1972, reproduced as pdf-file by Info-Turk; accessed on 8 November 2009 Affidavits confirmed that martial law commanders, military prosecutors and judicial advisors gave order to torture political prisoners, sometime supervising it.
The Ziverbey Estate The Ziverbey Estate (Ziverbey Köşkü) is a place in İstanbul-Erenköy which was used as a torture centre especially during the 12 March period.Information on Ziverbey Köşkü at turkecebilgi.com (Turkish); accessed on 24 October 2009 At the Ziverbey Estate well known people such as the journalists İlhan Selçuk, Doğan Avcıoğlu, Uğur Mumcu and İlhami Soysal were tortured.blog entry of 25 March 2008 (Turkish); accessed on 24 October 2009
See also Report of Talat Turhan to the CHP / First published on 1 May 1976 Serdar Çelik: Turkey's Killing Machine: The Contra-Guerrilla Force
Torture after the 1980 coup Over a quarter of a million people were arrested in Turkey on political grounds since 1980 and almost all of them were tortured.First sentence of the Turkey Briefing of Amnesty International in 1988; accessed on 24 October 2009 The Human Rights Association (HRA), founded in 1986 put the figure at 650,000Taksim'de Bomba, 12 Eylül Darbesi ve Anayasa Değişiklikleri press release of 11 September 2001, (Turkish); accessed on 24 October 2009 and in 2008 the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (HRFT) spoke of one million victims of torture in Turkey.TİHV, İşkence Atlası'nı Yayınladı HRFT publishes Torture Atlas, article in Turkish on 24 April 2008; accessed on 24 October 2009
One of the first measures after the 1980 coup d'état was to extend the maximum period of detention from 15 to 30 and then to 90 days. (see the relevant section below). Amnesty International has repeatedly documented that, in practice, incommunicado detention is often longer than legally permitted.See an article in BIANET of 19 September 2002; accessed on 26 October 2009 Specialized teams in İstanbul, Ankara and Diyarbakır were responsible for the interrogation of specific organizations and groups. İsmail Hakkı, for instance, said that between 1979 and 1985 he worked in the place called political department (at the time "first department") of Istanbul Police HQ in the "K" section (which may be the abbreviation of komünist = communist), the "group for interrogation and operations against illegal organizations" and later at the same place in Erzurum. All people in that wing were professionals. They could guess what organization had carried out which action just because of the way it was carried out and the way the militants had escaped.The article entitled BÖLÜCÜ PKK TERÖR ÖRGÜTÜ VE MÜCADELESİ (Fight against the separatist PKK terror organization) was first published at www.mercek.net on 8 May 2009, (Turkish); accessed on 26 October 2009
In the 1980s particularly Amnesty International issued many reports and urgent actions related to allegations of torture in Turkey. Some quotes are: May 1984, File on Torture: "The Turkish authorities have persisted in the torture of prisoners during the present decade." July 1985, Testimony on Torture: "Torture is widespread and systematic in Turkey." February 1986, Violations of Human Rights in Turkey: Political prisoners and common criminals are tortured or subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, while in police custody." July 1987, Continuing Violations of Human Rights in Turkey: "AI continues to be concerned about the imprisonment of prisoners of conscience, systematic torture and ill-treatment of political prisoners..."
Besides Amnesty International NGOs such as the International Commission of Jurists and the International Federation of Human Rights and international bodies like the Council of Europe sent delegations to Turkey to investigate the torture claims.For some examples see the book of Helmut Oberdiek: Dışarıdakiler (Turkish), the chapter on delegations to Turkey, accessed on 8 November 2009 On 1 July 1982 five States (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France and the Netherlands) filed an application against Turkey with the European Commission of Human Rights. They complained in particular about torture, unfair trials and restriction of freedom of expression. In December 1985 a friendly settlement was reached that asked Turkey to shorten the detention period, lift martial law and present periodic reports.German source: hearing in parliament (Bundestag) on 11 and 12 May 1993 Expert Helmut Oberdiek on Human Rights in Germany's internal and foreign affairs; accessed on 4 September 2009 Turkey had shortened the maximum length of detention in May and June 1985 from 45 days to 30 days in areas under emergency legislation and to 15 days in areas not under extraordinary rule.See the article İşkence azaldı mı? (Turkish), accessed on 8 November 2009 Later the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) became the main body to monitor the situation, but other bodies such as the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture (see the section on reports) also visited Turkey in order to evaluate the risk of torture in Turkey.
Torture after the 2016 coup d'état attempt
According to Amnesty International, detainees in Turkey are being subjected to beatings and torture, including rape, after the failed coup attempt. Police held detainees in stress positions, denied them food, water and medical treatment. Detainees were verbally abused, threatened as well as subjected to beatings and torture, including rape and sexual assault. Plastic zip-ties were often fastened too tight and left wounds on the arms of detainees. In some cases detainees were also blindfolded throughout their detention. In addition, detainees have been denied access to lawyers and family members and have not been properly informed of the charges against them, undermining their right to a fair trial. In general, it appears that the worst treatment in detention was reserved for higher-ranking military officers. Amnesty International said it wanted the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture to send people to check on detainees conditions. A person who had been on duty at the Ankara police headquarters claimed that police denied medical treatment to a detainee. "Let him die. We will say he came to us dead," the witness quoted a police doctor as saying. Some of the detainees were in extreme emotional distress, with one detainee attempting to throw himself out of a sixth story window and another repeatedly slamming his head against the wall.
The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan extended the maximum period of detention for suspects from four days to 30, a move Amnesty said increased the risk of torture or other maltreatment of detainees.
In a detailed research that cited torture cases across Turkey's prisons and detention centers, Stockholm Center for Freedom revealed that the torture, ill-treatment, abusive, inhuman and degrading treatment of people who are deprived of their liberties in Turkey's detention centers and prisons after July 15, 2016, coup bid have become a norm rather than an exception under increased nationalistic euphoria and religious zealotry in the country.