Weekly Report 27 April – 04 May, 2015

1) Police Brutality Terrorizes May Day Celebrations

All over the country, but primarily in Istanbul, people took to the streets to celebrate Labour Day, May 1^st. Despite cancelled metro, ferry and metro bus services workers were able to reach Beşiktaş and Şişli and stood firm against police attacks whilst trying to make their way to Taksim. Protesters resisted police in Beşiktaş’s Yıldız-Dikilitaş-Fulya district as well as at Zincirlikuyu, Ayazma Deresi, Zeytinburnu, Şişli and Kurtuluş. The Communist Party members who managed to reach Taksim Square were attacked by police and taken into custody. In Beşiktaş Square, the May Day Committee tried negotiating with the police who did not accept the committee’s claim that all of the demonstrators should be able to enter Taksim. Chanting, “We’re all going to Taksim Square” the demonstrators were blocked by the police barricade. Holding up their banners and dancing the halay hand to hand, people waited for the negotiations to end.

Just as the group was due to make a statement to the press, the police started firing plastic bullets, tear gas and water cannon without any warning. The police surrounded Beşiktaş, breaking apartment windows in order to forcefully arrest demonstrators taking cover within. The demonstrators spread into the narrower streets and once again set up barricades and resisted. Fascists, who were in charge of a car park in Beşiktaş, stabbed and severely injured a youth and attacked another with an axe.

As clashes grew, so did the violence in Okmeydanı; the police deployed special forces and began using live bullets and assault rifle equiped anti-terror squads – once again terrorizing the neighborhood.

According to a statement by the General Directorate of Security; 339 people were taken into custody on the first day, this was followed by a further 69 arrests bringing the total of police detainees to 408. According to a statement made on the 3^rd of May, of those arrested 10 people were charged and 173 released without charge.

In Ankara and Bursa demonstrators took down police search-points. In Niğde 25 people were arrested after police attacked demonstrators with pepper gas. In Tokat one person was injured in a fascist attack.

 

On 3^rd of May, Adnan Özkaçmaz, who was missing since the May Day demonstrations turned out to be unlawfully detained by the police in a warehouse along with several other protestors. Özkaçmaz spoke to the newspaper BirGün and he said that when they were detained nobody talked to them, nobody bothered taking their statements. They were just told that the jail in Vatan Police Station was at full capacity. They were then transfered to a warehouse in civilian cars and by plain-clothes policemen. They were shoved into this warehouse with their hands cuffed from behind with plastic handcuffs and they were forced to stay quiet. They weren’t registered or put through any legal process, they were denied all their rights. According to Özkaçmaz, the policemen then locked the doors and left 1 guard in charge and took off.

 

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 2) Sıla Abalay’s Hunger Strike

16 year-old Sıla Abalay was arrested on the 1st of April during operations in which houses were raided as part of a larger police operation carried out against revolutionaries in the wake of the hostage situation involving the Prosecutor of Berkin Elvan Case at Çağlayan Courthouse on the 31^st of March. Sıla began a hunger strike by calling for justice for Berkin Elvan, a fifteen year-old boy who was killed by the police with a tear gas cannister aimed at his head during the Gezi uprising. National media is not covering the hunger strike of this revolutionary prisoner – who may be considered still a child according to her young age. Sıla has been on hunger strike for 1 month.

Strength to Sila Abalay now on day 27 of hunger strike! 16 year old political prisoner of the Turkish state! pic.twitter.com/2RCzVxYYXZ

— Insurrection News (@InsurrectNews) April 29, 2015

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3) Violence and Abuse in Şakran Prison

In Şakran Prison, women prisoners have sent a letter reporting that guards have held pregnant young women under the age of 18 in solitary confinement as a punishment. According to the letter sent by imprisoned women in Şakran prison, due to being pregnant, two girls under the age of 18 were exposed to this confinement torture despite having acute pains; one woman prisoner suffering from mental illness was exposed to torture and put to sleep by the use of unknown pills. As delegates of the parliamentary opposition, politicians and lawyers interviewed these children; it emerged that guards were implementing systematic abuse against prisoners through overcrowding, physical violence, handcuffing prisoners in broom closets, and denying health services to pregnant prisoners and mothers.

In their joint declaration on April 28th, Ban Juvenile Prisons Initiative and Contemporary Lawyers Association (ÇHD) demanded the audit of these prisons by independent institutions and the urgent ban of juvenile prisons.

Women from the Socialist Democracy Party (SDP) and Türkiye Gerçeği (Truth of Turkey) occupied the Ministry of Family and Social Politics’ Provincial Headquarters building in Cağaloğlu demanding for those responsible for the sexual abuse at Şakran Prison to be brought to justice. Following its occupation, the women then hung a banner from the building declaring, “Children in Şakran Prison are being raped, do not stand by and watch this, rise up”. A short while later riot police intervened, taking 10 women into custody.

Source & More Information: http://www.bianet.org/bianet/diger/164158-the-symbol-of-the-violence-in-prisons-sakran-prison?bia_source=rss & http://jinha.com.tr/en/components/1762101896/content/view/21484

 

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4) People’s Democratic Party (HDP) Offices Under Fascist Attacks While Turkey Approaches Election Day

People’s Democratic Party (HDP) offices are constantly under attack by racist groups. Below you can see the map of these incidents.

HDP under attack by racist groups. Here the map of violence against HDP offices. pic.twitter.com/UhGd634Wnb

— HDP Foreign Affairs (@hdpdiplomacy) April 29, 2015

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5) Lawyers Say Border Killings Carried Out By Turkish Soldiers Violate International Law

Lawyers investigating the deaths of civilian women being shot by Turkish soldiers on the Rojava border say Turkey has engaged in violations of international agreements and human rights.
Several women have been shot and killed while trying to cross the Turkish-Syrian border that divides Northern Kurdistan in Turkey from Rojava(Western Kurdistan) in Syria. On May 18, 2014 soldiers shot and killed Saada Darwich in front of her two children and her father. Then, on February 29, 2015 soldiers again shot a 32-year-old woman named Nezahat Celal Sadun.

 

Source & More Information: http://jinha.com.tr/en/ALL-NEWS/content/view/21565?utm_content=buffer82724&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

 

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6) The Saturday Mothers Hold Their 527^th Gathering

The Saturday Mothers, who continue their resistance in the name of justice by demanding to know the fate of their relatives who went missing whilst in custody and who call for the perpetrators to be called to justice, met in Galatasaray Square for the 527^th time. This week they sought justice by demanding to know the perpetrators responsible for the death of Mustafa Erzik who was murdered whilst held in custody in Heribe Village (Sason Balbaşı), Diyarbakır in May 1994. Muzaffer Yedigöl, brother of Nurettin Yedigöl who also lost his life whilst in custody on the 10^th of December 1981, was the first to speak at the gathering. In reference to those who were subjected to state violence at May 1^st Labour Day celebrations he stated: “Unshackle democracy, let freedom have free reign. Fascism will make you too suffer one day; we will never let go our grip. We will never forget these unsolved murders, we will carry on being your worst nightmare.”

 

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7) The Alevi Massacre Was Condemned

35 Alevis were murdered by El Nusra Front and their allies in the village of İştebrak near to Idlip province’s town of Cisr El Şuğur on the Turkish-Syrian border. The massacre was condemned greatly in a number of places in Turkey, while on the other hand, some pro-massacre people were handing out Turkish Delights in celebration of the massacre at Istanbul’s Fatih Mosque.

 

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8) Demonstration Against Press Censorship

Reporters and members of the press took to the streets on the 3^rd of May for World Press Freedom Day. Members of the press reminded people of the pressures, censorship and penalties carried out against the media, stating, “We call upon everyone to stand up for the press”.

 

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9) “It Was MGK (National Security Council) who took the decision on Operation Return to Life massacre”

Lieutenant General Yusuf Soybaş has taken the witness stand claiming that he simply followed the orders of Aytaç Yalman and that the decision on ‘Operation Return to Life’ was taken by the MGK (National Security Council). Soybaş was responsible for security in Bayrampaşa Prison during the Operation Return to Life in which Turkish security forces stormed 20 prisons on 19 December 2000, killing 30 prisoners in an action aimed at ending the hunger strikes to which scores of prisoners had committed in protest against F-Type (High Security Solitary Confinement) Prisons.