The Human Rights Commission of the Ankara Medical Association (ATO) has harshly criticised a sports hall that had been adapted into detainee processing areas in the province in a new report, according to a report by Turkey’s left-wing newspaper Evrensel.
“There is no official detention and arrest centre at the Ankara Police Anti-Terror Branch, and in the 21st century, in the capital of Ankara, there are places and conditions that have more of the qualities of a concentration camp,” Onur Karahancı, who wrote the report, told at a press conference.
The commission found that detainees were taken to a sports hall whose air conditioning unit made a constant noise of between 60 and 65 decibels, where there was human sweat and body hair to be seen on the ground, and where inmates were not given individual bedding.
There was no way for detainees to tell the time, they said, and those with chronic illnesses were having difficulty knowing when to take their medication.
There were only two handbasins, three toilets and four showers, and as the shower doors had fallen off, three of the showers had rubbish bags affixed as makeshift curtains.
Detainees were not given the right to go outside or to access books or newspapers, the report found, and those who might pose a threat to one another were nonetheless made to sleep in adjacent beds.
The refusal of police to provide any privacy for medical services and procedures was also against universal medical ethics and human rights, Karahancı said.
Stockholm Center for Freedom (SCF) had previously received credible reports of mass torture and abuse in an unofficial detention center in Turkish capital. According to the appalling account provided by a group of lawyers who have the knowledge on the cases of recent detentions of some 1,000 people, police practiced torture and abuse on victims in a sporting hall that was converted into a detention hall in a short distance from the city center Ankara.
The facility, owned by the State Water Work (DSİ), was used to practice both verbal and physical tortures on victims including threats to kill, rape, beatings, strappado, spraying with ice cold water.
The lawyers who wanted to remain anonymous for safety reasons had told SCF that male suspects in the custody were not only subjected to torture but also threatened with a rape of their wives and daughters by the police. Women victims were directly threatened with a rape.
Turkey survived a controversial military coup attempt on July 15, 2016 that killed 249 people. Immediately after the putsch, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government along with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement.
Fethullah Gülen, who inspired the movement, strongly denied having any role in the failed coup and called for an international investigation into it, but President Erdoğan — calling the coup attempt “a gift from God” — and the government initiated a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody.
Turkey has suspended or dismissed more than 150,000 judges, teachers, police and civil servants since July 15. On December 13, 2017 the Justice Ministry announced that 169,013 people have been the subject of legal proceedings on coup charges since the failed coup.
Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu announced on April 18, 2018 that the Turkish government had jailed 77,081 people between July 15, 2016 and April 11, 2018 over alleged links to the Gülen movement. (SCF with Ahval)
The post ATO report shows Turkish gov’t keeps detainees in places like ‘concentration camp’ appeared first on Stockholm Center for Freedom.
from Stockholm Center for Freedom https://stockholmcf.org/ato-report-shows-turkish-govt-keeps-detainees-in-places-like-concentration-camp/
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