MAZLUMDER RELEASED TURKEY HUMAN RIGHTS 2009 REPORT

MAZLUMDER released Turkey Human Rights 2009 Report on May 20, 2010.

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In press conference MAZLUMDER Istanbul Branch Chairman Lawyer Cihat Gokdemir explained the method of the report. Gökdemir said“We publish a report for every year at the end as a result of our struggle to reveal the shortages of both regulations and their applications with a general assessment in order to make rights violations recorded those we tried to fix by interrupting after we had observed them in that year. For this purpose we prepared the report of Turkey Human Rights Violations in 2009.”

“The violations exist in our report obtained by scanning various sources which have unhappily not been objects of public interest. Our report composed as a result of persistent research and observation of a committee formed by MAZLUMDER Istanbul Branch Rights Violations Observation and Prevention Committee. The violations occurred in Turkey surely not limited with the violations stated in the report. Our priority while preparing this report has been to attract attention to the intensity of violations happened in a certain field by quoting the violations by illustrating the violations in each rights category.”

MAZLUMDER Vice Chairman Cuneyt Sarıyaşar made following statement about report:

GENERAL ASSESSMENT OF MAZLUMDER TURKEY HUMAN RIGHTS 2009 REPORT

MAZLUMDER, Organization of Human Rights and Solidarity for Oppressed People has been interested in Human Rights violations occurred worldwide and particularly in Turkey since 1991 after it was constructed and brought human rights problems occurred in many different fields up to the public eye. MAZLUMDER, an organization which has performed reporting actions in many issues until today, has provided remarkable assistance to the improvement of human rights in domestic and foreign public opinion with the Turkey and World reports it has prepared at the end of every year.

Turkey undergoes important communal processes and movements fast and densely with its many historical issues and geography which it takes part in. The problems which can be accepted important in communal and political aspect have been experienced successively like a streak of lightening. From this perspective 2009 has been an intense year for our country with the human rights agenda.

There have been many violations in our country this year including primarily rights of life violations. Ceylan Önkol’s death after the explosion of a mortar shell in Diyarbakır, the workers who lost their lives in Tuzla shipyards, the torments practiced under arrestments in prisons culminated with deaths, the corpses picked out some wells within the investigations of Ergenekon case, the arbitrary treatments intended for soldiers who serve within the Turkish Army Forces caused deaths and the deaths born of disproportional use of power use of gendarmerie forces made deep marks on our social memory. Perhaps more crucial fact is that the violation generating characteristic of our military and judicial trusteeship system in which the emergence of structural failures coming from the foundation of Turkey which we faced in Ergenekon trials.

There have still been various violations in basic organizational and expression rights like the right to assembly and demonstration. The tragic situations of the children who are being judged, with the risk of violating U.N. Children’s Rights Agreement, of organizational membership because of throwing stones with covered faces in meetings have the potential of making Turkey both face with a heavy shame in the future and be awarded of damage in large amounts in front of European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Countless writers and philosophers are being aggrieved concerning the scant legislations which cannot guarantee freedom of expression.

The violations which appeared within the context of freedom of religion and conscience become more chronicle day by day. The dominant belief that public sphere can restrict religious freedoms, victimizes many sections of society including both minorities and majorities. The female veiled citizens who are not allowed to enter in public spheres and the students who were made get down from buses as part of expansion of public areas even to interrupt private life’s, the lack of adequate progress on the demands of Alewi citizens about meeting houses and the discrimination committed against these citizens in many fields are main prominent violations. The use of the mosques as a tool for ideological improvement by making them the host of official ideology slogans on their roof and in the sermons are the typical indications of instrumentalizement of religion by state. While oppression applications on Christian, Jewish and other people are in continuation, there has public sphere and hour restrictions made in the areas concerning religious freedom like Friday prayer time.

With the limitations of age in Quran education, the universal right which everybody can teach the religion he/she wants his child to know is being violated. The people who come together as groups to have religious chat are blamed as terrorist organizations like Al-Qaeda and the nationwide operations on these people aggrieved hundreds of people.

“The right to conscientious objection” which is accepted as one of the fundamental rights in most of the countries, is still not seen as a human right in our country and there are administrative pressures and judgments on the people who want to make use of this right.

There are many problems in every stage of our educational system which imposes specific ideologies and rigs although it makes it compulsory for the children to go to schools. The girls who are the victims of dressing regulations in secondary education, the injustice of co efficiency which is practiced on vocational high schools and the girls who are not allowed to attend University examination because of their scarf’s are the clear indications of absence of equality of education in this country.

The democratic initiative should be seen as an important step which is begun to solve Kurdish problem which can be seen one of the biggest problems of Turkey. The process which makes the people turns back from mountains unfortunately misused by the sides with the purpose of political benefits. The Kurdish problem is still waiting to be solved but it cannot be taken into account apart from other issues. From this perspective, the Kurdish Initiative which was begun in 2009 should be expanded largely to embrace all of the aggrieved groups.

In addition to the country’s internal problems, the problem of refugees, the results of which takes our attention even if the reasons had appeared independent of us, has been a big rights issue for Turkey. In our country which is used as a corridor by the refugees, the refugees are kept in prison like guesthouses under non-human conditions. Turkey needs the most humanitarian legal and actual regulations for the part of the issue which is occurred in its land.

The reasons of the violations which are occurred in Turkey are structural problems. And the basic source of these structural problems is our Constitution. In our opinion, the problems can be solved with a civilian constitution which is constructed after civilian processes experienced. If the New Constitution which means a new social contract is going to make a new era started, “The General Political Amnesty” should be inevitable.

If we summarize the violations in Turkey:

The failure in the return to the abandoned villages because of the oppression and terror of the village guards,
The failure in the return of the Kurdish Diaspora ( Mahmor and Europe )
Illegality of schooling and education in native language,
The loss of rights in work and education life’s according to the headscarf ban,
The unsuitability of the refugee regulations to the international standards,
Obstacle in Quran and religion education for the Muslim children under 12,
The limitations for the religion education and citizenship rights of the minorities,
Not enough time arrangements for Friday Pray.
Presence of military law system causes duality (allegedly military staff died or injured during military training cannot be investigated properly),
Excluding the decisions of Supreme Military Council for appeal,
Turkish Armed Forces Internal Service Law gives the army some political obligations and duties,
Excluding the decisions of Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors for judiciary inspection,
Non-existence of regulations for the right of conscience objection,
Restricting freedom of press and expression by judicial decisions,
Using disproportionate force of security forces in protests and meetings,
Lack of official statues for Alevi cultural and religious institutions,
Presence of some provisions violating freedom of expression in Political Party Law,
Detention, as a measure, implements like execution,
Contradictory implementations against UN Convention on the Rights of Children,
Poor physical conditions of the prisons because of over capacity,
As a result of too long judicial process fair trail right is violated,
Presence of bureaucratic protection in the judicial process of civil servants,
Rumors for military seniors about military coup cannot be investigated,
F Type Prison Application has not been softened or removed,
Failing the destruction of domestic land mines.

MAZLUMDER, like the previous years, tried to inform and make the public opinion conscious about the violations occurred in 2009 with its 22 branches and over 5000 members by reporting, press statements, actions and complaints.

We are in the opinion that it is very necessary to take Turkey’s problematic issues into account connecting with each other and Turkey’s history while smiling on the steps taken about the Kurdish problem and the attempts like workshops for Alawis. Each positive attempt is blocked by the military constitution system which is the remain of past. From this perspective according to MAZLUMDER it is possible for these positive attempts to lie on more realistic grounds on condition of a new social contract within the context of a new Constitution. With this report MAZLUMDER hopes to make contributions to a more livable environment and better developments.

MAZLUMDER