The new Turkey Social Cost Report under State of Emergency released
27-mar-19
22 Jaqnuary 2019:
The testimonies on 'experience arrest and detention’ given by the victims of OHAL show that they have been subjected to 'systematic torture' in detention and in prisons.
Justice for Victims Society presented to the press the “Second Year of the Social Cost Report of the OHAL- State of Emergency”.
Some 3,776 people were interviewed to compile the report which was presented in a press conference at Taksim Hill Hotel.
HDP deputies Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, Hüda Kaya, Zeynel Özel and many writers and activists attended the press conference.
Gergerlioğlu stated that the negative effects of the State of Emergency (OHAL) and the Decree Laws (KHK) increased and that a generation was under threat.
Three important findings on KHK were revealed by the report, said Gergerlioğlu.
"The first was the very big shock experienced. Second the growing of an important mistrust, a skeptical mood. The third the sense of helplessness.”
Sociologist Bayram Erzurumluoğlu compared the new report with that produced two years ago and said this one shows how the grievances of the victims increased significantly.
Some of the findings from the 900-page long report were as follow:
“The report was compiled between 2 August and 23 September 2018 and interviewed 3,589 of Turkey's 81 provinces, while 87 people responded from 39 countries outside Turkey.
- 82.8 percent of the OHAL victims interviewed for the report were married. In other words, they have a family and on average they have two children.
27.8 percent of the victims are women.
We can easily say that the OHAL attacked family, and at least 300,000 infants and children were adversely affected by these attacks. Thousands of children were imprisoned with their mothers. These include at least 700 babies under two.
- 84 percent of the respondents said that they did not find the conditions in prison suitable for a human being, while 67.8 percent said that prison staff did not treat prisoners in an humanitarian way. On the other hand, 37 percent of prisoners said that they had thinking about committing suicide while they were in jail.
- 99.64 percent of the victims who were dismissed through the KHK and OHAL are individuals who had not any criminal investigations opened against them before 15 July 2016. In other words, almost all of the administrative and judicial investigations against the victims after July 15 do not have any bond or foundation with the past.
* While the average income of the victims interviewed was 3,500 TL before the OHAL, it decreased to 800 TL at the time of the interviewed.
* Higher school and college graduates in Turkey are 17 per cent, while they are 98.7 percent of the State of Emergency victims. Of these, 25 percent are masters and doctoral graduates and after the after the trauma they experienced they looked for an opportunity to go abroad: 83.9 percent went to a foreign country.
* The testimonies on 'experience arrest and detention’ given by the victims of OHAL show that they have been subjected to 'systematic torture' in detention and in prisons.
* The OHAL regime has transformed the country into a closed or open prison or a mega concentration camp for primary and secondary victims. When looking at the manner in which the state of emergency proceedings were conducted, it was seen that similar to the Inquisition practices, in medieval Europe, which was famous for witch hunts and witch trials.
* According to the principle of modern, positive law is necessary to keep always in light the ’presumption of innocence', and that ‘the defendant is innocent until proved guilty’.
Victims of the State of Emergency on the contrary were forced to prove their own innocence.
*Many of the victims said that ‘civil death', 'social insecurity' and ‘risk of hunger' were still a risk, after their release.
* OHAL and KHK processes, as well as causing significant damages to victims, family and close kinship relations also caused damages within the neighborhood and friendship relations. For this reason, many of the victim families had to move from their living places and the cases of unrest, separation and divorce among the victim families have also increased significantly.