THE REPORT RELATED TO THE RESULST OF THE VIOLATION OF RIGHTS THAT OCCURED DURING THE ınterventıon agaınst the SOLIDARITY PROTESTS FOR KOBANE’S RESISTANCE (SEPTEMBER 2-12, 2014)
Because of the attacks by the Islamic jihadist and massacrer gang ISIS, an evacuation of hundreds of villages in an earlier time has taken place, and as a result, the civilian massacre of Ezidis in Shingal, Iraq in July, 2014 and Kobane Canton in Syria/Rojava Region in September, 2014 has been prevented, but the resistance mainly by the civilians and YPG/YPJ groups, which have retreated in Kobane city, has been going on.
There have been widespread protests in many parts of Turkey and Turkey’s Kurdistan for solidarity with Kobane’s resistance, and against the violent gangster ISIS group’s attacks mainly towards Yezidis and other groups whose beliefs are different from itself.
On October 5, 2014, the protests have started to increase as a result of Salih Muslim’s, the co-chairman of the organized and most important party, PYD, urgent call and statement about Kobane city: “Whovever is going to do anything must do it now”.On October 6, 2014, after the interview made by Abdullah Ocalan’s brother Mehmet Ocalan in Imralı Island,the protests started to increase in Kurdistan as a result of Abdullah Ocalan’s statement about Kobane: “There must be resistance up to the end.” In the same day, DTK called all Kurds and their fellows to do campaigns for Kobane, and HDP called for mass demonstrations in order to resist with Kobane, and make Turkey open an supply route in the 21st day of Kobane’s resistance. On October 7, 2014, the chairmanship of KCK also called for a continuation of the protests unceasingly.
There have been announcements mainly by HDP and DTK, DBP and NGOs and authorities as a result of the casualties taking place because of the use of state terrorism in protests and the increasing attacks against public/private buildings and workplaces.
THE SITUATION OF TURKEY
It is clearly stated in the 13th article of Turkish Penal Code that the Turkish laws are going to be applied in case of commitment of genocide and execution of offences against humanity in a foreign country by citizens and foreigners.
In the repetition issue of the Official Gazette published on October 2, 2014,in accordance with the 1071 issued resolution of Grand National Assembly of Turkey, the resolution was accepted, and a legal grounds has been created for Turkey to meet the demands about the support for Kobane.
The genocide of the jihadist and massacrer gang called ISIS against the Yezidis in Shingal Region of Iraq on August 3, 2014, has been condemned by the international community.There are Security Council Resolutions 2170 and 2178 of the United States, and in these resolutions, it is stated that there must be combat against this group.
An important part of the population in the Rojava Region of Syria consists of Kurds. As it is known, the Kurds living in Turkey and Syria are relatives.Since ten thousands of people have seeked refuge in Turkey in September after ISIS’ attacks, and the only route to aid Kobane city to defend itself is Turkey, there have been widespread protests in order to make the government take the necessary steps about this issue. In the report below, state terrorism during the demonstrations and the violation of rights as a result of the state’s condoning by the paramilitary groups are presented.
THE STATEMETSS OF VARIOUS POLITICAL PARTIES AND NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS
The United Nations Secretary- General Ban Ki-Moon has stated that the coalition forces must do whatever they can. The authorities of the European Union and Council of Europe have called on for sensitivity for Kobane.
There has been common statements by 21 organizations about a supply route from Turkey to Kobane and to subside the events going on, and except these by HDP, DBP,DTK, IHD,TIHV, the International Federation of Human Rights and the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network.
Steffan Mistura, UN’s Special Representative of Syria, has made an urgent call related to the resistance in Kobane to stop ISIS’ attack against Kobane .
The violence of the demonstraters which mainly included damaging property is not the subject of this report. Human rights defenders are always against the protests including violence. Thus, we have taken up a position about the issue in our sit-in protest in front of Grand National Assembly of Turkey on October 7, 2014.
THE STATEMENTS AND ACTIONS OF THE GOVERNMENT AND THE GOVERNMENT OFFICERS
On October 9, 2014, the Esteemed President of the Republic has stated that the protests ongoing in Turkey have nothing to do with Kobane, that public buildings and transports are damaged and Kobane is nearly to fall, and it is observed that in his speech taking place in Gümüşhane on October 12, 2014, he has criticized only the attacks against certain segments, repeated the same ideas and criticized the damage against property. It is observed in his statemetss that he has spoken discriminatively, ignored the state terrorism and had a threatening attitude.
In his statement in Malatya on October 10, 2014, which was about the executions made by the police in Bingöl after the attacks against the chief of police and his team, the Prime Minister, esteemed Davutoğlu, has legitimized extrajudicial killing, and totally been unlawful by saying that “they have found those villains in two hours and punished them. They have paid the price for it. From now on, nobody will think that they will get away with it, they will absolutely pay off.”
It has been observed that, on October 8, 2014, the Minister of Internal Affairs, the esteemed Ala, has had a threatening attitude against the demonstrators, suggesting that “this irrational manner must immediately stop and the demonstrators must withdraw from the streets. Otherwise, there will be unforessen consequuences. Whatever needed is going to be done against them.”
In the statement made by the Governorate of İzmir on October 11, 2014, it has been stated that the allegations taking place in the official website of Turkish Armed Forces, announcing that “the Turkish flag was burned in İzmir” was groundless, and a different illegal group has tried to lower the Turkish flag but it couldn’t, and thus the provocation of the Turkish Armed Forces has been prevented.
VIOLATION OF RIGHT TO LIFE
As can be seen from the table below, between October 7-12, 46 people lost their lives as a result of the government officers’, paramilitary groups’ and the demonstraters’ violence, and the violation of right to life has been observed due to extrajudicial killing, muder by undidentified assailants and the attacks of illegal groups.
CONCLUSION:
The fact that the government has been a mere spectator towards the attacks of a massacrer gangster group against the relatives of the Kurds in Turkey and a city next to Turkey’s borders cannot be admitted. Thus, we suggest that the demanded supply route to provide the necessary aid to Kobane must be opened. By this way, the reaction of public will subside and the incidents will come to an end.
The demostrations taking place to support Kobane’s resistance and act with solidarity, and the interventions to these demonstrations show that the solution and peace process in Turkey is fragile. Thus, the government should convert the dialogue process that has been carried out with Kurdish political movement in order to improve the peace and solution process into negotiation stage, and thus should resolve that fragility.
The attacks of paramilitary groups show that the counterinsurgency organizations have not been dissolved in Turkey.It is expected from the government to take the required steps in order to dissolve all kinds of counter groups and fight against them.
It has been observed in the demonstrations that there has been custodies and arrests which are a proof of the fact that the recent changes in the Law of Criminal Procedure are only for show, that jurisdiction has taken place with the effect of the goverment which proves that presumption of innocence has been violated, and thus the practice of adversarial criminal procedure has not changed.
The fact that a lot of people have ben injured and killed by the attacks of the paramilitary groups, and there haven’t been any effective inquirement procedures against them shows that the policy of impunity is still going on.
The incidents have shown that there have been a lot of hate crimes because of the use of hate speech. The government must immediately establish the council of equality and struggle against discrimination, and make legislative regulations that prohibit hate crimes and struggle against hate crimes effectively.
The statements of the representatives of the government related to the execution of the ones by the police after the armed assault against the chief of police and his team in Bingöl are perturbative.Extrajudicial killing cannot be defended and legitimized. There should be an effective investigation and prosecution against all the officers who have commited extrajudicial killing.
Public order has directly been threatened by the governmet officers as the paramilitary attacks against the Kurds in Gaziantep have been only looked on by the security and intelligence units. It is required that primarily the Governorate and chief of police of Gaziantep and others who have responsibility in the incidents should be unseated, and there should be effective inquirement and prosecution about them. The fact that there hasn’t been a curfew in Gaziantep despite the paramilitary attacks and lynch attepmts against the public shows that this method has been used discriminatively, and no effective precautions have been taken by the governance to protect the Kurds.The events taking place in Gaziantep have shown that couterinsurgency has been effective in the incidents just like the mass murders occuring before the September 12th, 1980; they have proved that the similar incidents may take place in other places and they have been like a massacre rehearsal. The government must take the most effective precautions against this kinds of events which set ground for a coup.
The incidents taking place in Kurtalan District of Siirt have shown that the system of village guards must immediately be disestablished, and the guns must be taken from the village guards.
After all these incidents, the Esteemed President of the Republic’s statements about the legal amendments related to the prospective increase of the power of the police and the military police, and punishment of the demonstrators are an evident threat to fundamental rights and freedoms. The government is required to get away from this kind of anti-democratic regulations. The precautions that will increase the authoriterian implementations will make it easier to pass from the regime of normalcy to the regime of emergency (like the state of emergency, state of siege).
We specially want to proclaim to the government that military domination is severely being signaled to be active again as the Turkish General Staff has given a medal to the first lieutatnet who has teased the Mayor of Diyarbakır; has spread the provocation that the Turkish flag was burnt in İzmir and thus showing that the Kurds are still being treated as second-class citizens; even though not having any duty about the civil domain, making statements related to “important domestic events” and has attempted to dominate the civil domain by giving an impression that military forces are needed during imposing a curfew. We also proclaim that the government has been only an onlooker to all these incidents.
The threats against the human rights defenders who have been observers and somehow peacemakers throughout the demonstrations cannot be admitted. We demand from Turkey to put the UN Declaration on the Protection of Human Rights Defenders into practice effectively, and to protect the administrators of the Human Rights Association who have been a target.