Amid the tumult in Turkey, human rights abuses abound

Abstract

Wielding water cannons, tear gas, and batons, Turkish police have cracked down violently on peaceful dissent—and the world is watching. Patrick Adams reports from Istanbul.5 weeks ago, Turkish riot police attacked a group of peaceful demonstrators in Istanbul's Taksim Square as they protested against the government's plans to replace a park with a shopping mall housed in a replica Ottoman-era army barrack—one of a number of controversial urban renewal projects pushed through in recent years without public consultation.When word of the attack spread on social media, thousands came out in support of the Gezi Park protesters, and within days the small-scale sit-in had ballooned into mass, nationwide antigovernment protests. In a clumsy attempt to put these protests down, police fired water cannons into crowds and filled the streets with tear gas, frightening away tourists and sending Turkish stocks tumbling.In the 5 weeks since the attack, say human rights groups, five people have died and more than 7500 have been injured, several of them critically. And still the crackdown continues—a heavy-handed response characterised by widespread police brutality, arbitrary detentions, efforts to intimidate and discredit journalists, and threats of criminal investigations of “provocateurs” alleged to have insulted state officials or incited riots through posts on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.As a result, the ruling Justice and Development Party, known by its Turkish acronym AKP, has come under increasing criticism for its harsh handling of events. On June 13, the European Parliament adopted a resolution expressing concern over “the disproportionate and excessive use of force by Turkish police to break up peaceful and legitimate protests” and urging Turkish authorities to respect the rights of all citizens to freedom of expression and assembly. Days later, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, added her voice to the chorus, reminding the Turkish Government that it must ensure that the policing of demonstrations complies at all times with international human rights obligations.“Reports that tear gas canisters and pepper spray were fired at people from close range, or into closed spaces, and the alleged misuse of rubber bullets, need to be promptly, effectively, credibly, and transparently investigated”, Pillay told reporters. Also worrying, she said, is the substantial number of people who have been arbitrarily detained for acts other than recognised crimes, as well as reports of their ill treatment in detention.Yet in the face of criticism from all sides, including within his own party, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has remained defiant. Lashing out at critics—Erdogan said he does not recognise the European Parliament and exchanged barbs with the White House—he defended riot police tactics such as the use of tear gas and water cannons as necessary to combat what he calls a “plot against Turkey” by “enemies from abroad”. Indeed, perhaps most troubling about the Prime Minister's response, say observers, is his tendency to paint the protesters as terrorists bent on burning and destroying all in sight.There is, after all, an ugly precedent for this tactic in Turkey, where national security has been used to justify a growing crackdown on dissent, including a campaign against the news media that has made the country of 74 million the world's leading jailer of journalists, ahead even of China and Iran.Days before the bombing this February of the American Embassy in the Turkish capital, Ankara, authorities there arrested close to 100 people thought to have ties to the Revolutionary People's Liberation Front, the outlawed organisation to which the bomber belonged. Among those arrested were journalists, lawyers, and even musicians.As Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report condemning those arrests, “Turkey's overbroad antiterrorism laws have been used against an ever-widening circle of people charged for nonviolent political activities and the legitimate exercise of freedom of expression, association and assembly”.The same might have been said about the ongoing protests, during which hundreds of people have been detained, held incommunicado, and denied due process. The Committee to Protect Journalists says it has documented dozens of attacks on journalists, mainly by police, over the course of the unrest, including detentions, assaults, obstruction, threats, and the unlawful confiscation and destruction of protective gear.A protester is carried away after being tear-gassed by Turkish police, June 12View Large Image Copyright © 2013 Patrick AdamsLast week, the Mayor of Ankara, Melih Gökçek, singled out one journalist in particular—the London-based BBC presenter Selin Girit—for special abuse, labelling her a “traitor” and a “spy” and inciting his Twitter followers to do the same in a stream of rabble-rousing Tweets. When the BBC objected to what it called government intimidation, Prime Minister Erdogan himself stepped into the fray, accusing Girit of being “part of a conspiracy against her own country”.Although most of those detained by police have been released, 18 members of a legal leftist organisation (ESP) remain in pre-trial detention on charges of membership of an illegal organisation, as do two members of a football team fan group, who are under investigation for being members of an organised criminal gang and for possession of explosives, according to HRW. “The majority of the Gezi Park protesters did not engage in violence, let alone anything that could be described as acts of terrorism or organised criminal activity”, says HRW senior researcher Emma Sinclair-Webb. “Nor did they use guns and explosives during their protest. But imprisoning people linked to the protests under the Anti-Terror Law and for weapons possession looks like an effort to discredit the legitimate aims of the protesters.”“What's especially disappointing is that the Prime Minister has made inflammatory statements threatening to mobilise the supporters of the ruling party against the demonstrators”, says Amnesty International's researcher in Turkey, Andrew Gardner, who was himself hit by a police water cannon in Taksim Square. The excessive use of force by Turkish police isn't uncommon at demonstrations, he says. “But even by these standards, what we've seen in the last few days is absolutely disgraceful and should be put to an end immediately.”From the start of the protests, says Gardner, Amnesty International has kept its office near Taksim Square open around the clock, giving it over to teams of doctors and medical workers who have used the space to care for injured protesters out of harm's way. Similar makeshift clinics have been set up in houses, hotels, restaurants, and mosques, and doctors from around the country have volunteered their expertise and time.Now those doctors are finding themselves the target of an investigation by the Turkish Ministry of Health, which recently launched a probe into the Turkish Medical Association (TBB), requesting that the association immediately turn over the names of all volunteer medical workers and their patients. “We tried to help the wounded and we didn't distinguish between protesters and police because that is our humanitarian duty as doctors”, says Mehmet Tok, a general practitioner and spokesperson for the Istanbul Chamber of Medicine, the governing body of the TBB. “The Ministry of Health should have made these services available, but they didn't. So we had to. We are providing these services, and now they want to punish us for it. They are making a mistake.” A spokesperson for the Ministry did not respond to requests from The Lancet for comment.In a written reply to Chief Inspector İzzet Taşçı in the Ministry of Health, representatives of the TBB declared that they would not share the names of any colleagues or patients—not even that of the police officer they treated on a recent afternoon. “He had been hit in the head by something that fell from the AKM building”, said Tok, referring to the flag-draped Ataturk Cultural Center at the top of Taksim Square. “There was no ambulance for him, and at first the police said, ‘We don't want your help’. But then they saw that it was serious—he had been knocked unconscious and was in a lot of pain—and they changed their mind.”For a moment in mid-June, it seemed as though the Prime Minister might do the same. He invited the protest organisers to his home for talks, and agreed to allow a legal challenge to the government's construction plans to run its course. But before the protesters could convince their rank-and-file to vacate the park, the Prime Minister dispatched riot police to forcibly evacuate them. In doing so, the police fired tear gas into a hotel lobby where hundreds of people had taken refuge, and on the grounds of a hospital, and assaulted protesters in hospitals and make-shift clinics. Those attacks showed “a dangerous disregard for the wellbeing—and indeed the lives—of protesters and bystanders”, says HRW's Sinclair-Webb. “The repeated violence against people who are dissatisfied with government policies has deeply polarised Turkey. The government urgently needs to change police tactics and issue a clear signal for restraint.” Wielding water cannons, tear gas, and batons, Turkish police have cracked down violently on peaceful dissent—and the world is watching. Patrick Adams reports from Istanbul. 5 weeks ago, Turkish riot police attacked a group of peaceful demonstrators in Istanbul's Taksim Square as they protested against the government's plans to replace a park with a shopping mall housed in a replica Ottoman-era army barrack—one of a number of controversial urban renewal projects pushed through in recent years without public consultation. When word of the attack spread on social media, thousands came out in support of the Gezi Park protesters, and within days the small-scale sit-in had ballooned into mass, nationwide antigovernment protests. In a clumsy attempt to put these protests down, police fired water cannons into crowds and filled the streets with tear gas, frightening away tourists and sending Turkish stocks tumbling. In the 5 weeks since the attack, say human rights groups, five people have died and more than 7500 have been injured, several of them critically. And still the crackdown continues—a heavy-handed response characterised by widespread police brutality, arbitrary detentions, efforts to intimidate and discredit journalists, and threats of criminal investigations of “provocateurs” alleged to have insulted state officials or incited riots through posts on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. As a result, the ruling Justice and Development Party, known by its Turkish acronym AKP, has come under increasing criticism for its harsh handling of events. On June 13, the European Parliament adopted a resolution expressing concern over “the disproportionate and excessive use of force by Turkish police to break up peaceful and legitimate protests” and urging Turkish authorities to respect the rights of all citizens to freedom of expression and assembly. Days later, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, added her voice to the chorus, reminding the Turkish Government that it must ensure that the policing of demonstrations complies at all times with international human rights obligations. “Reports that tear gas canisters and pepper spray were fired at people from close range, or into closed spaces, and the alleged misuse of rubber bullets, need to be promptly, effectively, credibly, and transparently investigated”, Pillay told reporters. Also worrying, she said, is the substantial number of people who have been arbitrarily detained for acts other than recognised crimes, as well as reports of their ill treatment in detention. Yet in the face of criticism from all sides, including within his own party, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has remained defiant. Lashing out at critics—Erdogan said he does not recognise the European Parliament and exchanged barbs with the White House—he defended riot police tactics such as the use of tear gas and water cannons as necessary to combat what he calls a “plot against Turkey” by “enemies from abroad”. Indeed, perhaps most troubling about the Prime Minister's response, say observers, is his tendency to paint the protesters as terrorists bent on burning and destroying all in sight. There is, after all, an ugly precedent for this tactic in Turkey, where national security has been used to justify a growing crackdown on dissent, including a campaign against the news media that has made the country of 74 million the world's leading jailer of journalists, ahead even of China and Iran. Days before the bombing this February of the American Embassy in the Turkish capital, Ankara, authorities there arrested close to 100 people thought to have ties to the Revolutionary People's Liberation Front, the outlawed organisation to which the bomber belonged. Among those arrested were journalists, lawyers, and even musicians. As Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report condemning those arrests, “Turkey's overbroad antiterrorism laws have been used against an ever-widening circle of people charged for nonviolent political activities and the legitimate exercise of freedom of expression, association and assembly”. The same might have been said about the ongoing protests, during which hundreds of people have been detained, held incommunicado, and denied due process. The Committee to Protect Journalists says it has documented dozens of attacks on journalists, mainly by police, over the course of the unrest, including detentions, assaults, obstruction, threats, and the unlawful confiscation and destruction of protective gear. Last week, the Mayor of Ankara, Melih Gökçek, singled out one journalist in particular—the London-based BBC presenter Selin Girit—for special abuse, labelling her a “traitor” and a “spy” and inciting his Twitter followers to do the same in a stream of rabble-rousing Tweets. When the BBC objected to what it called government intimidation, Prime Minister Erdogan himself stepped into the fray, accusing Girit of being “part of a conspiracy against her own country”. Although most of those detained by police have been released, 18 members of a legal leftist organisation (ESP) remain in pre-trial detention on charges of membership of an illegal organisation, as do two members of a football team fan group, who are under investigation for being members of an organised criminal gang and for possession of explosives, according to HRW. “The majority of the Gezi Park protesters did not engage in violence, let alone anything that could be described as acts of terrorism or organised criminal activity”, says HRW senior researcher Emma Sinclair-Webb. “Nor did they use guns and explosives during their protest. But imprisoning people linked to the protests under the Anti-Terror Law and for weapons possession looks like an effort to discredit the legitimate aims of the protesters.” “What's especially disappointing is that the Prime Minister has made inflammatory statements threatening to mobilise the supporters of the ruling party against the demonstrators”, says Amnesty International's researcher in Turkey, Andrew Gardner, who was himself hit by a police water cannon in Taksim Square. The excessive use of force by Turkish police isn't uncommon at demonstrations, he says. “But even by these standards, what we've seen in the last few days is absolutely disgraceful and should be put to an end immediately.” From the start of the protests, says Gardner, Amnesty International has kept its office near Taksim Square open around the clock, giving it over to teams of doctors and medical workers who have used the space to care for injured protesters out of harm's way. Similar makeshift clinics have been set up in houses, hotels, restaurants, and mosques, and doctors from around the country have volunteered their expertise and time. Now those doctors are finding themselves the target of an investigation by the Turkish Ministry of Health, which recently launched a probe into the Turkish Medical Association (TBB), requesting that the association immediately turn over the names of all volunteer medical workers and their patients. “We tried to help the wounded and we didn't distinguish between protesters and police because that is our humanitarian duty as doctors”, says Mehmet Tok, a general practitioner and spokesperson for the Istanbul Chamber of Medicine, the governing body of the TBB. “The Ministry of Health should have made these services available, but they didn't. So we had to. We are providing these services, and now they want to punish us for it. They are making a mistake.” A spokesperson for the Ministry did not respond to requests from The Lancet for comment. In a written reply to Chief Inspector İzzet Taşçı in the Ministry of Health, representatives of the TBB declared that they would not share the names of any colleagues or patients—not even that of the police officer they treated on a recent afternoon. “He had been hit in the head by something that fell from the AKM building”, said Tok, referring to the flag-draped Ataturk Cultural Center at the top of Taksim Square. “There was no ambulance for him, and at first the police said, ‘We don't want your help’. But then they saw that it was serious—he had been knocked unconscious and was in a lot of pain—and they changed their mind.” For a moment in mid-June, it seemed as though the Prime Minister might do the same. He invited the protest organisers to his home for talks, and agreed to allow a legal challenge to the government's construction plans to run its course. But before the protesters could convince their rank-and-file to vacate the park, the Prime Minister dispatched riot police to forcibly evacuate them. In doing so, the police fired tear gas into a hotel lobby where hundreds of people had taken refuge, and on the grounds of a hospital, and assaulted protesters in hospitals and make-shift clinics. Those attacks showed “a dangerous disregard for the wellbeing—and indeed the lives—of protesters and bystanders”, says HRW's Sinclair-Webb. “The repeated violence against people who are dissatisfied with government policies has deeply polarised Turkey. The government urgently needs to change police tactics and issue a clear signal for restraint.”