Dear Council,
Dear Guest,
Dear Delegates,
We welcome you all to the 15th Ordinary General Assembly. I salute you with all my regards.
Before starting my speech, I need to say that I remember all our friends we lost to whom we dedicate our assembly and İhsan Atar and İbrahim Açan, the founders of our association who died in this week, and that their memories shall light the way for our struggle.
Since the day the IHD was established, it has claimed that Turkey has problems on democracy and human rights. The main reasons for these problems are the Kurdish Question, the Freedom of Thought and Faith and the Guardianship.
We have experienced several important developments since the last assembly. In 2009, the state officially accepts the existence of the Kurdish Question. Even though it accepted its existence, it never concluded it by redefining the question. In this process, the attitude of the state towards the Kurdish question evolved to the policy of definition and refinement from the policy of denial and annihilation. However, in its nature, if you define a problem, you should do whatever it is necessary to solve the problem. The Kurdish question cannot be solved without the Kurds and the interlocutor. Regarding result of the local elections on 29 March 2009, result of the boycott to the referendum on 12 September 2010 and what happened during the last two years, it is obvious that the Kurdish question cannot be solved without the Kurds and the interlocutor. In this period, the system shows itself having gridlock within the nonviolent means of problems about the legal pressure on the human rights defenders and the Kurdish politicians. The Kurdish question cannot be solved by means of violence. This question can be solved by means of the human rights on the political base. So then, the legal pressure over the politicians must be eradicated totally. Turkey needs to decide its own way in this process. It must not intervene to the politicians who want to solve this problem on the political base in non-violent ways. It must not intervene to the public opposition. It cannot implement the policy of pressure over unarmed people while claiming to lay down arms. Such annihilation policy must be abolished.
Moreover, it needs to be mentioned about ongoing trials in Diyarbakır against the Kurdish politicians, the representatives of NGOs and the human rights defenders. It is clearly a violation of the freedom of expression and association if people, who never use force and promote the violence in the solution of the Kurdish question, are accused of being part of illegal activities.
What happened during the trial on 18th of October shows us that the right to fair trial and right of defense are not implemented. In this trial, it is aimed to convict the politicians, the human rights defenders along with the Kurdish language of which existence is being rejected. The court’s incredible resistance against demand to defense in Kurdish highlights the background of ideology of the state based on the Turkish ethnicity. The legal means of the court that is against even the Treaty of Lausanne is the one of the indicators of the special judgment way towards the Kurdish people for 87 years. Every nation living in this country including the Kurds has their own right to use, learn, speak, teach and defense in their own languages. Any organizations or any individuals cannot prevent them to use such right.
Dear guests, Dear Delegates,
The reason behind the problem in the area of freedom of thought and religion is that the system has ad hoc religion understanding. The fact that the Republic of Turkey which has ad hoc laicism is under structure of Islamic Sunni understanding cause contradictions. This understanding excludes different beliefs and cultures. The fact that problem of Alevi people are not solved and their demands are not met although Alevi workshops were organized during the term of office of this government is caused by the understanding of official religion. Demands of Alevi peoples such as legalization of Cem houses which is the centre of Alevi religion and culture, abolition of compulsory lesson of religion, and termination of building mosques in Aevi village should be met urgently.
Prohibition on head scarf also stems from this ad hoc understanding of laicism of the system. To prevent people from veiling themselves in certain places is also consequence of oppressive state. It should be remembered that freedom is the most important thing.
Also problems of non-muslims who are accepted as minority according to the Treaty of Lausanne in the area of freedom of thought and religion should be remembered. Until now Halki Seminary has not been opened. This also shows that one of main violations in that area still continues. The existence of symbolic worship in monastery on special days can be evaluated as promising development.
Dear Counsel,
One of the main problems in Turkey is the tutelage problem. This problem can be explained as the guardianship of Ministry of Justice on judiciary, the guardianship of National Security Council on the government, the guardianship of the Higher Education Institution on universities, the guardianship of central administration on local authorities and the guardianship of judiciary on political parties. The characteristic of tutelage of Republic of Turkey is one of the biggest obstacles to consolidation of democratic culture. It should be noted that tutelage does not only mean the guardianship of military. Therefore we should fight against each type of tutelage. The guardianship of judiciary and Constitutional Court on political parties is also one of the main obstacles to liberalization of the regime of political parties. The National Security Policy Document (Red Book) which is ratified by National Security Council a few weeks ago is indicator of guardianship on the government and the government’s security oriented approach to rights and freedom. I would like to state that it will be difficult to consolidate the democratic culture as long as this mechanism develops such documents.
One of the main consequences of tutelage system in Turkey is illegal organization in the state. Steps to reveal of illegal organizations such as counterinsurgency organization linked to NATO and organizations like Ergenokon and Jitem and to trial responsible persons were taken but these limited steps have not continued.
I want to add that Turkey should face events occurred in 1915, experience in Kurdish rebellions, Dersim massacre, inhuman treatment during the coup d’état period, slaughters, unknown murders, extrajudicial executions, forced evacuation of villages, disappearance under custody and especially the period of armed conflict in last 30 years. To see upcoming period as “the period of facing reality should be among our primary duties
To bring putschers who are responsible for 12 September coup d’état to justice, and make them to be sentenced with what they deserve by using opportunities caused with annul of Article 15 should be among duties of human right advocates in the way of facing reality process. Our association will continue its works on that issue.
I need to focus on the process of membership of European Union which is the important dynamic in the democratization process of Turkey. It can be said that the progress process remains stable.
Dear Guests, Dear Delegates,
The most important result of the referendum on 12 September 2010 is releasing the desire of the society to have a new and democratic constitution. The IHD claims repeatedly how a democratic constitution must be established.
The IHD claims that;
1. The Constitution must exclude the first part establishing a common future for whole society (including all parts of society living in Turkey) by excluding its ideological content and abolishing the official ideology.
2. The Constitution must implement the principles of the pluralism, the transparency and the participatory democracy.
3. It needs to guarantee totally the right to fair trial by reinstalling the rule of law.
4. It needs to secure the freedom of association for everyone and the union rights of employees covering the right to bargaining collectively and to strike totally within understanding of the social state.
5. It needs to guarantee the gender equality and women’s human rights and to support the equality between the genders and sexual orientations.
The main duty that we have in this period is to strengthen movement for a civil constitution and to procure acceptance of demands of the movement for the civil constitution.
Dear Council,
We cannot decide our situation in terms of the human rights without mentioning the developments under the titles of the rights. Where we stand now shows us that we are again in a problematic period.
Comparing to developments on the violations of the right to life 10 years, the statistics of the IHD goes positively but it is getting worse in last years. The violence policy in the Kurdish question needs to be ended in order to make progress in the violations of the right to life and to end such violence. The law on police powers (PSVK) which was changed in 2007 needs to be annulled. The law enforcement officers must be prevented to use force easily. The government needs to realize control mechanism for police and gendarmeries which is mentioned in the democratic initiative for the Kurdish question. The culture of violence created by atmosphere with armed conflict must be taken into account as an important title. It needs to work on a common disarmament in order to decontaminate the violence from the society.
TORTURE AND ILL-TREATMENT
According to data of our association, claims of torture and ill-treatment continue in a widespread manner. The official data of the Ministry of Justice demonstrates that more than 100 ill-treatment and torture cases are opened in every year. It is carelessness that the government acts as if such problem does not exist. To cope with impunity culture and to ratification of Optional Protocol to the Convention of Torture (OPCAT) by the parliament urgently are required to fight against torture and ill-treatment. I want to ask the AKP government which claims that” there is not torture” or “torture decreased”; why you do not ratify the OPCAT in the parliament? Why do not you let the NGOs monitor detention centers especially prisons?
PROHIBITION ON DISCRIMINATION
The current constitution is the basis of the discrimination since it does not accept differences due to its ideological characteristic. There is no mention on ethnicity, gender, religion as a basis of discrimination in the equality article of Constitution. There is need for establishment of an equality institution fight against discrimination in Turkey and arrangement of “hate crimes” with the special law of prohibition of discrimination. In this regard, works we undertake in IHOP were shared with the governments and any concrete results were received.
FREEDOM OF THOUGHT, EXPRESSION AND PRESS
In the Articles 134, 214, 215, 216, 217, 218, 220/6-7-8, 222, 277, 285, 288, 300, 301, 305, 314/3, 318 and 341 of the Turkish Penal Law, the Anti-Terror Law, the Misdemeanor Law, the Law No 2911 on Meetings and Demonstrations, the Law on Political Parties, the Law on Trade Unions, the Association Law and the Law on the Protection for Atatürk, there are many limiting and punishing laws of the area of this right. I want to mention that we have experienced problem of freedom of expression and this is one of fundamental problem that we face. The political power applies prohibition of freedom of expression on people who are against their opinion, especially opposition groups by using current tutelage regime. When the AKP came into power, the number of case opened under the anti-terror law was 472 in 2008, it was 3754. The number of people on trial increased from 975 to 6851. This situation should be ended.
FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY AND DEMONSTRATION
We cannot talk about the freedom of assembly and demonstration in Turkey in a real sense. Interfere into meeting and demonstration, use of excessive force, opened cases, punishments shows how bad the situation is. Fines given under the misdemeanor law and the government’s demand to relocate places of demonstration out of city show that the government cannot stand critiques.
FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION
Closure of political parties, the tutelage application of Constitutional Court and High Court of Appeal and closure case against associations and trade-unions shows that there are more steps to be taken in the area of freedom of association.
INDIVIDUAL SECURITY AND FREEDOM AND FREEDOM OF PROSONER
The existence of heavy arrestment regime in the Code of Criminal Code and easy arrestment of person who are charged with catalogue crimes indicates that right of individual security and freedom are very often violated.
When the AKP government came into power there were 59.000 people in the prisons. In August 2010, this number increased to 119.000 people, which shows gravity of the problem. This high rate of detention highlights the implementation of an oppressive policy. Turkey ranks number 5 in the detention rate in Europe and ranks 3 in the total number of the prisoners in Europe. It does not release people who have heavy sickness in the prisons, which also shows us an institutional oppressive regime in the system. Such limitation on the lives of the prisoners is clearly against international rights and freedoms.
What happened in İnegöl and Hatay Dörtyol in this year (lynch attempts) shows us important weaknesses in terms of providing security of different ethnic groups. Such lynch culture is one of urgent problems to deal with.
THE RIGHT TO FAIR TRIAL
Regarding existence of the civil and military jurisdiction in the Constitution and existence of the special competent courts which are continuation of ex-DGM, ideological attitudes over the jurisdiction and the guardianship of the Ministry of Justice over the Supreme Board of Judges and Public Prosecutors (HSYK), there is no well-established legal structure considering the rule of law in Turkey. In the last changes within the Constitution, there is no development in terms of the right to fair trial. The IHD always claims to abolish the Special Competent Heavy Criminal Courts and shall conduct a special campaign about this cause.
The illegal decision of the jurisdiction about the wiretapping and permission for audio surveillance creates an atmosphere of horror in Turkey. The freedom of communication is violated basically by the jurisdiction itself in Turkey.
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RIGHTS
The result of the World Economic Crisis in 2009 was seen in Turkey too. Recently, its indicators are seen in increase of official and unofficial unemployment rates, income distribution gaps and regional developmental differentialities in terms of jumping the shark in the economic and social rights. Policy implementation of charity of state is an indicator for the state not seeing economic and social rights as a right. It should not be forgotten that the economic and social rights are sine qua non for people as much as the individual and political rights.
HARRASMENT AND VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND CHILDREN
In this year, violence, sexual harassments and rapes against women and children are continuing increasingly. Unfortunately, honor killings still exist. Not stopping such killings over woman’s body is a serious cultural problem. For advancing the gender equality there is no positive development. Even though the positive discrimination is brought by the new Constitution, the male-dominance still exists.
SUPPRESSION TOWARDS THE HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS
We are holding the 15th Ordinary General Assembly while our friends, Muharrem Erbey, Vetha Aydın, Roza Erdede, Aslan Özdemir, Abdulbaki Çoğatay, Mehmet Şerif Süren and Orhan Çiçek are still in the prisons. Maintaining legal pressures towards the human rights defenders is another place for implementation of security-oriented policies. The UN Convention on the Protection of the Human Rights Defenders to which Turkey is also part is not fully implemented. The Vice-President who is competent in the human rights is also responsible for the security issues, which shows that the policies on the human rights that they conduct are security-oriented. I need to mention that the human rights defenders are not alone. I would like to state that we stand near to our arrested friends and their all works are totally defending the human rights.
Dear Council,
While I am finishing my speech, I would like to state that our works on the human rights shall continue increasingly and the IHD Academy on Human Rights (which we opened in the last term) shall contribute to our work tremendously. I wish initially Muharrem Erbey, the Vice-President, and other arrested friends to emancipate as soon as possible and Turkey shall improve the human rights.
I greet you all respectfully.
Öztürk Türkdoğan
President of IHD