Editing Human rights in Turkey (section)

==The right to live==
The right to live may be threatened by other means than the death penalty. In particular during the 1990s there were many instances of extrajudicial executions, (political) killings by unidentified perpetrators (''faili meçhul cinayetler'') and cases of "disappearances".

===Capital punishment===
{{Main|Capital punishment in Turkey}}
The death penalty has not been implemented in Turkey since 1984. Turkey abolished the sentence for peace time offences in 2002 and for all offences in 2004. The sentence was replaced by aggravated life imprisonment (''ağırlaştırılmış müebbet hapis cezası''). According to Article 9 of Law 5275 on the Execution of Sentences<ref>An [http://www.tbmm.gov.tr/kanunlar/k5275.html online edition of Law 5275] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181207054258/https://www.tbmm.gov.tr/kanunlar/k5275.html |date=2018-12-07 }} (in Turkish on pages of the Turkish Government); accessed on 10 September 2009</ref> these prisoners are held in [[Solitary confinement|individual cells]] in [[Supermax|high security prisons]] and are allowed to exercise in a neighbouring yard one hour per day. They have more limited access to activities and they are not allowed to work.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Türkiye: prisons in 2024 |url=https://www.prison-insider.com/en/countryprofile/turkiye-2024?s=populations-specifiques-5d9b19c2d4a4f |access-date=2024-05-14 |website=Prison Insider |language=en}}</ref>

===Extrajudicial executions{{anchor|Extra-judicial_executions}}===
{{Further|List of journalists killed in Turkey|List of assassinated people from Turkey}}
{{See also|Assassination of Hrant Dink|Attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II}}
In 1990 [[Amnesty International]] published its first report on [[Extrajudicial punishment|extrajudicial executions]] in Turkey.<ref>The report [http://ob.nubati.net/wiki/Extra-judicial_Executions Turkey: Extra-judicial Executions (AI Index: EUR 44/45/90)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200916090626/http://ob.nubati.net/wiki/Extra-judicial_Executions |date=2020-09-16 }} was accessed on 10 September 2009</ref> In the following years the problem became more serious. The [[Human Rights Foundation of Turkey]] determined the following figures on extrajudicial executions in Turkey for the years 1991 to 2001:<ref>Source: Report for 2001, published on 10 March 2003, Ankara, {{ISBN|975-7217-38-7}}, page 49 (Turkish)</ref>
{| class = "wikitable"
|-
|1991||1992||1993||1994||1995||1996||1997||1998||1999||2000||2001
|-
|98||283||189||129||96||129||98||80||63||56||37
|}

In 2001 the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Ms. [[Asma Jahangir]], presented a report on a visit to Turkey.<ref name="UN2001">The {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20071002225033/http://www.extrajudicialexecutions.org/reports/E_CN_4_2002_74_Add_1.pdf full report as pdf-file]}}; accessed on 10 September 2009</ref> The report presented details of killings of prisoners (26 September 1999, 10 prisoners killed in a prison in Ankara; 19 December 2000, an operation in 20 prisons launched throughout Turkey resulted in the death of 30 inmates and two gendarmes).

For the years 2000–2008 the [[Human Rights Association (Turkey)|Human Rights Association]] (HRA) gives the following figures on doubtful deaths/deaths in
custody/extra judicial execution/torture by paid village guards<ref>The [http://www.ihd.org.tr/images/pdf/IHD_1999_2008_Comparative_Balance_Sheet.pdf comparative balance sheet of the HRA] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140530112405/http://ihd.org.tr/images/pdf/IHD_1999_2008_Comparative_Balance_Sheet.pdf |date=2014-05-30 }} is available in English; accessed on 10 September 2009</ref>
{| class = "wikitable"
|-
|2000||2001||2002||2003||2004||2005||2006||2007||2008
|-
|173|| 55|| 40|| 44|| 47|| 89|| 130|| 66|| 65
|}

In 2008 the human rights organization [[Mazlumder|Mazlum Der]] counted 25 extrajudicial killings in Turkey.<ref>The [http://www.mazlumder.org/ms_word.asp?haber=4784 full report in Turkish as word-file] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120227033753/http://www.mazlumder.org/ms_word.asp?haber=4784 |date=February 27, 2012 }}; accessed on 10 September 2009</ref>

===Unsolved killings===
The mass violations of human rights in the mainly Kurdish-populated southeast and eastern regions of Turkey in the 1990s took the form of enforced disappearances and killings by unknown perpetrators which the state authorities showed no willingness to solve.<ref>Report by Amnesty International: [https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/eur44/008/2007/en/ The Entrenched Culture of Impunity Must End] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181122061805/https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/eur44/008/2007/en/ |date=2018-11-22 }} Index Number: EUR 44/008/2007, Date Published: 5 July 2007</ref> In 2009 the Human Rights Association stated that up to the end of 2008 a total of 2,949 people had been killed by unknown perpetrators and 2,308 people had become victims of extrajudicial executions.<ref>The [http://www.ihd.org.tr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1626:bir-eylul-turkiyede-barisin-yildonumu-olsun&catid=67:genel-merkez&Itemid=213 press release is available in Turkish] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090909010748/http://www.ihd.org.tr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1626:bir-eylul-turkiyede-barisin-yildonumu-olsun&catid=67:genel-merkez&Itemid=213 |date=2009-09-09 }}, accessed on 11 September 2009</ref>

A parliamentary commission to research killings by unknown perpetrators (''faili meçhul cinayetleri araştırma komisyonu'') was founded in 1993 and worked for about two years. Many members complained that they had not been assisted and their work had been undermined.<ref name="Rad">''[[Radikal]]'', 24 October 2008, [http://www.radikal.com.tr/Radikal.aspx?aType=RadikalDetay&ArticleID=904986&CategoryID=77 Faili meçhul komisyonu üyeleri 1000 cinayeti 15 yıl önce görmüştü...]</ref> One member of the commission, [[Eyüp Aşık]], stated that the [[Turkish Hezbollah]] had been behind many of these killings and added that the State had had three effective arms in the fight against terrorism: special teams, [[Village guard system|village guards]] and Hezbollah. Although he had witnessed about 80 actions of Hezbollah in Adıyaman province the then Minister for the Interior had said that there was nothing by that name. This in turn had made him believe that the State supported Hezbollah.<ref name="Rad" />

Human Rights Watch (HRW) first called for an investigation of links between Hezbollah and the security forces in 1992.<ref>The HRW [https://www.hrw.org/legacy/english/docs/2000/02/16/turkey3057_txt.htm backgrounder: What is Turkey's Hizbullah?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306023124/https://www.hrw.org/legacy/english/docs/2000/02/16/turkey3057_txt.htm |date=2016-03-06 }} was published in 2000; accessed on 12 September 2009</ref> In a separate report HRW stated:
{{blockquote|During 1992 there was an extremely disturbing increase in the number of suspicious deaths in southeast Turkey. Hundreds of people were killed by unknown assailants; many of those people were leaders or in positions of responsibility in the Kurdish community — doctors, lawyers, teachers, political leaders, journalists, human rights activists, businessmen... Human rights activists were among the victims. Thirteen of the suspicious killings since January 1992 were of journalists.<ref>Quotes taken from the HRW Report [https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/TURKEY933.PDF The Kurds of Turkey: Killings, Disappearances and Torture] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200916090608/https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/TURKEY933.PDF |date=2020-09-16 }}, March 1993, accessed on 12 September 2009</ref>}}

Based on the data of the Interior Ministry, the daily "Zaman" reported that between 1987 and 2001 a total of 2,914 political killings, 1,334 of them in the responsibility area of the police and 1,580 in area of the gendarmerie, were committed in the Eastern and Southern Eastern Anatolia Regions. 457 of the killings in areas of the police and 1,291 in areas of the gendarmerie had not been clarified.<ref name="HRFT2001">Quote taken from the English version of the Annual Report 2001 of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey, Ankara 2003, p. 68, {{ISBN|975-7217-38-7}}</ref>

The following figures were presented in the annual reports of the HRFT between 1990 and 2001<ref name="HRFT2001" />
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Year||1990||1991||1992||1993||1994||1995||1996||1997||1998||1999||2000||2001
|-
!Victims||11||31||362||467||423||166||113||65||45||52||13||24
|}

The Human Rights Association (HRA) presents the following figures for the years 1999 to 2008:<ref>Figures were taken from the Turkish version of the [http://www.ihd.org.tr/images/pdf/1999_2008_karsilastirmali_bilanco.pdf comparative balance sheet] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130205114847/http://www.ihd.org.tr/images/pdf/1999_2008_karsilastirmali_bilanco.pdf |date=2013-02-05 }}; accessed on 12 September 2009</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Year||1999||2000||2001||2002||2003||2004||2005||2006||2007||2008
|-
!Victims||212||145||160||75||50||47||1||20||42||29
|}

The Human Rights Association Mazlumder presented figures on killing by unknown assailants and suspicious death for the years 2005 to 2008:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mazlumder.org/dosyalar/2005-2008bilabco.doc|title=The report in Turkish can be downloaded at www.mazlumder.org, accessed 12 September 12, 2009|access-date=December 2, 2009|archive-date=February 27, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120227034304/http://www.mazlumder.org/dosyalar/2005-2008bilabco.doc|url-status=dead}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Year||2005||2006||2007||2008
|-
!Incident||170||138||384||315
|-
!Victims||203||167||373||343
|}

==="Disappearances"===
[[File:Kayip bus.jpg|thumb|Special bus placed close to the action of the [[Saturday Mothers]]]]
In Turkey, the military campaign against Kurdish secessionists in Eastern Anatolia has been accompanied by numerous enforced disappearances, which also gave rise to judgments of the European Court of Human Rights to murder.<ref>[http://assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?link=/Documents/WorkingDocs/Doc05/EDOC10679.htm#P225_20274 Draft Resolution (Doc. 10679) of 19 September 2005 on Enforced disappearances] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140517123437/http://assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?link=%2FDocuments%2FWorkingDocs%2FDoc05%2FEDOC10679.htm#P225_20274 |date=17 May 2014 }}, prepared by the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights for the General Assembly of the Council of Europe; accessed on 13 September 2009</ref> There were only a handful of cases of [[Forced disappearance|"disappearances"]] in Turkey in the 1980s, but a high number of deaths in custody.<ref>Article by Helmut Oberdiek on [http://ob.nubati.net/en/life/disap.php The Right to Life: Disappearances] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200916090612/http://ob.nubati.net/en/life/disap.php |date=2020-09-16 }}, report compiled in 2007, accessed on 12 September 2009</ref> The opposite was true for the 1990s, when the number of people who "disappeared" after having been abducted by agents of the States increased.<ref>See a press release of the [http://www.ihd.org.tr/english/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=13:headquarters&id=485:campaign-against-disappearances Human Rights Association of 15 May 1995] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928210831/http://www.ihd.org.tr/english/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=13:headquarters&id=485:campaign-against-disappearances |date=28 September 2011 }}; accessed on 12 September 2009</ref>

In 1998 the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances issued a Report on the visit to Turkey by two members of the Working Group from 20 to 26 September 1998. It stated ''inter alia'':
{{blockquote|Most of the disappearances concerned persons of Kurdish ethnic origin and occurred in the provinces of Diyarbakir and Siirt, in south-east Anatolia, where the armed and security forces are combating the PKK and where a state of emergency is in force. Some of the reported disappearances took place in Antalya, İzmir and Istanbul. Most of the cases followed the same pattern: the missing persons had allegedly been arrested at their homes on charges of belonging to the PKK and taken to the police station but their detention was later denied by the authorities.<ref>[http://www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/0811fcbd0b9f6bd58025667300306dea/efb18eb4337a6c768025672b003c3b30?OpenDocument Full text of the Report of the UN Working Group] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230117230851/http://www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/0811fcbd0b9f6bd58025667300306dea/efb18eb4337a6c768025672b003c3b30?OpenDocument |date=2023-01-17 }}; accessed on 13. September 2009</ref>}}
In her report of 18 December 2001 the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Ms. [[Asma Jahangir]], wrote: While the number of cases of abductions or "disappearances" have decreased over the last few years, at the time of the Special Rapporteur's visit such incidents still did occur, particularly in the remote areas of south-east Turkey, and there was deep concern at the recent disappearance of two persons.<ref name="UN2001" />

In some places on the Internet a list attributed to the HRA can be found (but not on the website of the HRA). It is said that the original list contained 839 names, but that adding further names the list covered 1,251 names in the end.<ref>See the daily [http://www.radikal.com.tr/Radikal.aspx?aType=RadikalDetay&ArticleID=911664&Date=04.12.2008&CategoryID=77 Radikal of 6 December 2008] (Turkish); accessed on 13 September 2009</ref> In a revised list that covers only the time between 1980 and 1999 Helmut Oberdiek reached a figure of 818 cases of "disappearances" in Turkey.<ref>The [http://ob.nubati.net/wiki/Turkey:_The_Right_to_Life cover article on the right to life in Turkey] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723231456/http://ob.nubati.net/wiki/Turkey:_The_Right_to_Life |date=2011-07-23 }} and details on [http://ob.nubati.net/wiki/Turkey:_%22Disappearances%22 cases of "disappearances"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120219102317/http://ob.nubati.net/wiki/Turkey:_%22Disappearances%22 |date=2012-02-19 }} in English; accessed on 13 September 2009</ref>

The ''[[Saturday Mothers]]'' held weekly protests against "disappearances" between May 1995 and 1999.<ref>See the [http://www.tuerkeiforum.net/enw/docs/hrft1999report.pdf Annual Report 1999 of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724115016/http://www.tuerkeiforum.net/enw/docs/hrft1999report.pdf |date=2011-07-24 }} (English, page 338); accessed on 15 September 2009</ref> They had to suspend their action on 13 March 1999<ref>See an article in the daily [http://www.bianet.org/bianet/insan-haklari/10036-cumartesi-annelerinden-cumartesi Radikal of 31 December 2002] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111203074413/http://www.bianet.org/bianet/insan-haklari/10036-cumartesi-annelerinden-cumartesi |date=3 December 2011 }} (Turkish); accessed on 16 September 2009</ref> after week 200, because of intense pressure, detention and ill-treatment.<ref>See the Report of Amnesty International [https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/eur44/017/1998/en/ Turkey: Listen to] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181122061825/https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/eur44/017/1998/en/ |date=2018-11-22 }} the [[Saturday Mothers]]; Index Number: EUR 44/017/1998
Date Published: 1 November 1998; accessed on 15 September 2009</ref> In March 2009 the Saturday Mothers took their action up again.<ref>Reported in [http://bianet.org/english/english/34829-saturday-mothers-demand-justice Bianet of 18 May 2004] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728122536/http://bianet.org/english/english/34829-saturday-mothers-demand-justice |date=28 July 2011 }} and [http://www.france24.com/en/20090316-turkey-elections-saturday-mothers-kurds-erdogan France24 of 16 March 2009] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091215085443/http://www.france24.com/en/20090316-turkey-elections-saturday-mothers-kurds-erdogan |date=15 December 2009 }}; both accessed on 15 September 2009</ref>