WE’RE TIRED OF DEATHS; POLITICS SHOULD GIVE PEOPLE LIFE, NOT KILL THEM

Yesterday another one of our lives was lost.  Deaths of people in our region have become ordinary, commonplace.  The most ordinary of rights, the right to life, continues to be violated in the middle of the streets on an almost daily basis, and in Ankara politicians continue to watch the deaths.  Our hearts can’t bear this anymore.  Who can understand the sorrow in the hearts of Aydım Erdem’s mother, father and sibilings, who screamed in grief on 06 December in the morgue at Dicle University Research Hospital?  The place that’s been inflamed continues to burn. 23 year-old Aydın Erdem, a university student born in Ömerli (Mardin province), lost his life at the Dicle University Research Hospital after being shot from close range by police during the demonstration in Diyarbakır on 06 December 2009.  The images that show Aydın being hit are circulating in the news agencies and on television. In the footage, an armed civil police officer is seen hitting Aydın Erdem.
 
The autopsy report written by the prosecutor and two specialist doctors appointed by the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office revealed the following information. In the middle section of the outer edge of the right shoulder blade there was a 1.5 x 0.7 centimeter wound and on the right side a 0.2 centimeter entry wound where Aydın Erdem was hit, and these injuries were probably the entry wound of a bullet.  On the left shoulder there’s a straight-edged wound 1 x 0.5 centimeter in size that’s probably the bullet’s exit wound.  On the middle section of the left eyebrow there was a 1 x 0.5 centimer blunt traumatic skin laceration, and on the outer edge of the same brow there was a similar injury.  On the left side of the nasal ridge there was a superficial scratch 0.5 x 1 centimeter in size.  Also, on the top section of the right lung and the top and middle sections of the left lung there were lacerations connected to the transit path of the bullet.  The exit wound was about fifteen degrees higher in reference to the entry wound. Finally, according to the entry and exit wounds, the person who shot the gun was standing on his feet and was on approximately on the same plane as the victim when he fired the gun, and the victim’s body was at a 10 or 15 degree angle in relation to the ground when he was shot.
 
According to the conclusion of the autopsy report, Aydın Erdem’s body was hit by one bullet and the bullet created lethal wounds; it would be necessary to carry out a criminological investigation of the hole-ridden clothing the victim was wearing at the time of the incident in order to definitively determine the range from which the bullet was fired; and Aydın Erdem’s death resulted from injuries to his internal organs and large vessels and internal and external bleeding caused by the bullet wound.
 
The Human Rights Association has issued many statements concerning the use of disproportionate force by security forces.  According to our data, in the last three years 135 civilians have been killed and 114 have been wounded after being fired on by soldiers, police officers or village guards. 

The security forces’ targeting of and firing on demonstrations, as happened on 6 December near the AKP building in the Batıkent neighborhood of Diyarbakır, is an unacceptable event for democracies.  For some people, the prison conditions of Abdullah Öcalan, who has been held in a one-person prison in İmralı for 11 years, may be unimportant, but for others, they might be very important. Instead of considering the sensitivities of a wide segment of the population and taking concrete, irreversible steps with the democratic opening, the state asked why some people consider conditions in İmralı important.  After staying silent about the change in conditions in İmralı, which strained the atmosphere in the country, it was decided to send a delegation, but this hasn’t solved the problem.  The Prime Minister’s statements have increased tension instead of reducing it.  In democratic countries, the state tolerates the reactions of the people, listens to their requests, and if they don’t agree they even make statements about the topic.  In democratic societies, every statement the state makes might not find acceptance among the public.  The impartial research, statements, and appeals made to the public by civil society and civil voices contributes to the reduction of tension.  Unfortunately, the state is deficient in this respect.  The fact that the state comes to meet with and take suggestions from NGOs but then fails to give them permission to investigate conditions in İmralı and trusts foreign human rights defenders but not the ones in Turkey is a deep topic for debate.  There’s an attempt to stifle the reactions that have been voiced in the face of unsatisfactory statments by using guns and extremely disproportionate force.
 
In the European Union progress report on Turkey’s accession process released on 13 October 2009, it’s critcized that although 431 investigations related to torture and maltreatment have been opened against security forces in Istanbul alone, only 31 of these have turned into lawsuits, and none of them have resulted in punishments.  How many more crimes committed by Turkey’s security forces are we going to learn about?  How many more sentences to punishment are going to be received from the European Court of Human Rights?  How much longer will the state turn toward the democratic rights of Turkey’s people with armed violence, and how much longer will the judiciary ignore this?
 
We don’t want to see the deaths of any more children.  We don’t want the politicians in Ankara to make empty and weak speeches as they watch the deaths the children in our region, which result from the lack of a solution to the Kurdish issue.  Politics must be based on the creation of life, not deaths.  Ankara is currently watching these deaths, and conducting empty and wild politics.
 
In recent years, the state has introduced an extremely harsh approach to social demonstrations and protests.  The hitting of children with sentences between 10 and 25 years in prison for making the ‘V’ for victory sign with their fingers or for throwing stones, the acquittal of those who killed Uğur Kaymaz, the killing of Ceylan Önkol on 28 September with a mortar shell, the failure to find those responsible for the death of 18 month-old Mehmet Uytun, who lost his life as a result of a gas bomb deployed by security forces while being brestfed in his mother’s lap on their balcony in Cizre, and most recently the killing of Aydın Erdem through shooting at close range, cannot be accepted.  These types of events weaken the trust of the region’s people in the state and judiciary and increases the mistrust and insecurity between locals and the state.  Why has there been a serious increase in deaths of children?  Why haven’t the perpetrators responsible been prosecuted after these deaths?  What’s the explanation for the fact that 98 percent of judicial and administrative inquires opened about security forces between 2003 and 2008 ended in their favor, and that the remaining 2 percent ended with light punishments?  
 
The Kurdish issue hasn’t been resolved with two hundred years of bloodshed, tears, and politics of refusal and denial.  Concrete steps must be taken and the process of reaching a democratic solution must be accelerated.  Turning back from this process would distance our country from civilization and bring us back a hundred years.  A solution to the Kurdish question, however would leave behind a dark era, usher in a bright period, and bring Europe closer.  We say enough is enough.  We don’t want to dig new graves.
 
We’re appealing to politicians, academics, NGOs, journalists and all people of conscience; come and first of all let’s stop the flow of blood.  We’re saying let’s work towards this goal.  We want the screams and tears of the Aydın family, which tore our hearts on the evening of 06 December in the morgue, to be the last of the pain and tears.  Because of this, we demand that an inquiry about the security forces responsible for the death of Aydın Erdem be immediately opened, that the names of the security forces employed in front of the AKP building in the Batıkent district of Diyarbakır be announced, that statements be taken from the the armed civil policeman and other security force employees seen in the footage circulating in the news agencies, that the perpetrator be immediately arrested when his identity is proven and that information regarding the steps taken be shared with the public.
 
With our respect,
 
Muharrem Erbey, Attorney at Law
Vice President of the Human Rights Association
President of the Diyarbakır branch of the HRA