Turkish police and soldiers sent to the disastrous earthquakes in early February have allegedly beaten, tortured and abused people they suspected of theft and looting, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Wednesday.
One person has reportedly died in a cell after being tortured by law enforcement, who also failed to intervene when civilians were violently assaulting people whom they considered guilty of crimes.
“Members of the security forces are using the state of emergency as a license to torture, abuse and even kill,” the human rights organisations stated. Amnesty and HRW cite at least 13 incidents of police brutality and have “credible reports” of others. These include beatings, but also threats and arbitrary detentions.
Most of the victims were arrested by police, gendarmes or soldiers during the search and rescue efforts and were not taken to official custody, but were “immediately beaten or made to lie or kneel down while being kicked, slapped, and sworn at for prolonged periods, sometimes while handcuffed”.
Four cases involved Syrians and were likely to have been related to xenophobia. Witnesses interviewed by the organisations recall police officers being particularly aggressive toward Syrians, treating them “like thieves” and not allowing them to be part of rescue teams.
The field hospital in Kirikhan, Turkey, built by Belgian governmental aid organisation B-Fast (Belgian First Aid and Support Team). Credit: Belga / Sedar Ozsoy
Almost all the incidents took place in Antakya, in the hard-hit province of Hatay. Most of the victims have not been criminally prosecuted, so the NGOs say it is unclear whether they are guilty.
Turkey responded that it has a zero-tolerance policy towards torture but that Amnesty and HRW’s findings were based on “vague allegations, without factual basis.” Amnesty and HRW want Turkey to carry out thorough investigations to determine who the perpetrators are and what exactly they have done. The victims deserve justice and compensation, the NGOs demand.
In one of the examples the organisations give, one Turkish man recounts a gendarme threatening him, by telling him “there is a state of emergency, we will kill you … We will kill you and bury you under the rubble.”
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In the midst of the humanitarian crisis, some local politicians responded with ruthlessness, like Ümit Özdağ, leader of the small far-right Victory Party, who tweeted that looters should be shot by the police and military.
The Turkey and Syria earthquakes took place in February this year, when a shock of 7.8 Magnitude hit Southeast Turkey and Northwestern Syrian. Just 11 minutes later, a quake of 6.7 Magnitude took place. The death toll in both countries rose over 56,000. More than 3 million people have been displaced.
