Crimes by Turkey and Iran against Kurds and International Law
Crimes by Turkey and Iran against Kurds and International Law
Thousands of Kurds disappeared, murdered and tortured during war between PKK and Turkish government. Torture has been systematic and widespread in all police stations and prisons mainly in Kurdish areas. The purpose of this essay is to briefly analyze crimes of enforced disappearances, murders and tortures in Turkey according to the Rome Statute and International Criminal Law.
The form of forced disappearances have been clear; In most of them, members of military forces, polices and plainclothes, attacked homes of victims, arrested them and finally the families of the persons went to police station or a state agency, court, to know whereabouts of their child or their relative, the police or military forces denied their detention or they claimed that they released their child but the PKK abducted him/her without showing no evidence of his/her detention or release, without releasing no information of the fate of their children. One of the members of Parliament of Siirt explained this pattern as such: “it happens over and over -- police come to someone's house and take him away. The family goes to the police station or the gendarmerie station and ask for him. The police say, 'We never took him. Then the family goes back with a witness who says that he saw police take the person. Then police say, 'Well, we had him, but we let him go.' Then the person's body turns up outside of town."
In many cases of forced disappearances, arrests, abduction, detention by the State agencies were documented by reports of Amnesty International, HRW and or other local human rights organizations.
If enforced disappearances and murders committed in widespread or systematic manner it is crimes against humanity. According Convention of Enforced Disappearance States should prosecute those who involved for the crimes of disappearances but Turkey deliberately failed to investigate those crimes to provide information on whereabouts of those arrested, and to punish those involved. It is worth notice that according to KNK report, one of the mass graves of disappeared was found near a gendarmerie station in the eastern province of Bitlis’ Mutki district, which is one of clear evidences of involvement of Turkish government in committing disappearances and murder of Kurds. But, despite large-scale demonstrations and protests by thousands of Kurds for establishing a truth committee to investigate those crimes and to punish those involved, Turkey has remained silent.
Regarding torture in Turkey, according to a HRW report: “Suspects of both political and ordinary crimes are routinely and systematically tortured in police interrogation centers in both western and southeast Turkey. Appalling torture techniques are regularly used: electric shock to the genitals and other sensitive parts of the body; falaka; rape, both vaginal and anal, sometimes using truncheons or gun barrels; shooting highly-pressurized water at victims who are sometimes constrained in rubber tires; severe beatings with sticks and truncheons; death threats and threats to kill family members; placing victims on blocks of ice; forcing victims' heads into excrement; placing victims in small cells with attack dogs who attack and bite them.”
In Turkey, attacks of enforced disappearances, murders and tortures have been against Kurdish civilians that had political affiliation with PKK or had been active in the Kurdish society, politically and culturally. The Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (HRFT) provided list of more than two thousands Kurdish civilians that had been abducted or arrested by variety of security forces and finally disappeared or murdered, their bodies were found outside the city or village or their were buried secretly in mass graves . According to an IHD reports: 469 corpses had been secretly buried in 114 mass graves in Turkey since 1989. Over the past years, authorities have unearthed 171 corpses from 26 mass graves.”
Also, crimes of enforced disappearances, murders and tortures in Turkey have occurred for the “furtherance of State policy”. Because; First; those who involved in committing such acts of disappearances and tortures have been members of military forces, gendarmes, police etc. Second; a large number of victims have been Kurdish political activist, member of pro-Kurdish parties, supporters of PKK or affiliated with them. Third; the existence of discriminatory laws, rules and formal state policy in Turkey against Kurds. "When it comes to the Kurdish question, the courts in Turkey are all too quick to label political opposition as terrorism," said Emma Sinclair-Webb, Turkey researcher at Human Rights Watch and author of the report. Forth, committing these crimes with this large-scale amount needed considerable financial and political support from the government. In addition, accordance to the Human Rights Watch: “In the early 1990's, there was a policy of rounding of hundreds and thousands of civilians, and giving no proper trial or judicial process, but rather taking them in, threatening them, torturing them. There was systematic torture throughout that period, and a lot of others simply were not heard of again and in that region, thousands disappeared or bodies were found too at the time, but not identified and there was no attempt to discover how the killings took place and who by. So there is massive legacy and impunity. For the past abuses, for the disappearances and killings".
In the result, crimes of enforced disappearances, murders and tortures in Turkey committed as crimes against Humanity and the Turkish authorities should be prosecuted for these crimes in the International Criminal Court or International tribunals.
Systematic and widespread torture in jails and extrajudicial killings and murders of tens of Kurds in every month especially in border areas by Iranian security forces, if closely examined could amount to crimes against humanity by Iranian authorities and they should be held accountable in ICC or international tribunals.
* Student in Lund University, Faculty of Law, in International Human Rights Law
The form of forced disappearances have been clear; In most of them, members of military forces, polices and plainclothes, attacked homes of victims, arrested them and finally the families of the persons went to police station or a state agency, court, to know whereabouts of their child or their relative, the police or military forces denied their detention or they claimed that they released their child but the PKK abducted him/her without showing no evidence of his/her detention or release, without releasing no information of the fate of their children. One of the members of Parliament of Siirt explained this pattern as such: “it happens over and over -- police come to someone's house and take him away. The family goes to the police station or the gendarmerie station and ask for him. The police say, 'We never took him. Then the family goes back with a witness who says that he saw police take the person. Then police say, 'Well, we had him, but we let him go.' Then the person's body turns up outside of town."
In many cases of forced disappearances, arrests, abduction, detention by the State agencies were documented by reports of Amnesty International, HRW and or other local human rights organizations.
If enforced disappearances and murders committed in widespread or systematic manner it is crimes against humanity. According Convention of Enforced Disappearance States should prosecute those who involved for the crimes of disappearances but Turkey deliberately failed to investigate those crimes to provide information on whereabouts of those arrested, and to punish those involved. It is worth notice that according to KNK report, one of the mass graves of disappeared was found near a gendarmerie station in the eastern province of Bitlis’ Mutki district, which is one of clear evidences of involvement of Turkish government in committing disappearances and murder of Kurds. But, despite large-scale demonstrations and protests by thousands of Kurds for establishing a truth committee to investigate those crimes and to punish those involved, Turkey has remained silent.
Regarding torture in Turkey, according to a HRW report: “Suspects of both political and ordinary crimes are routinely and systematically tortured in police interrogation centers in both western and southeast Turkey. Appalling torture techniques are regularly used: electric shock to the genitals and other sensitive parts of the body; falaka; rape, both vaginal and anal, sometimes using truncheons or gun barrels; shooting highly-pressurized water at victims who are sometimes constrained in rubber tires; severe beatings with sticks and truncheons; death threats and threats to kill family members; placing victims on blocks of ice; forcing victims' heads into excrement; placing victims in small cells with attack dogs who attack and bite them.”
In Turkey, attacks of enforced disappearances, murders and tortures have been against Kurdish civilians that had political affiliation with PKK or had been active in the Kurdish society, politically and culturally. The Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (HRFT) provided list of more than two thousands Kurdish civilians that had been abducted or arrested by variety of security forces and finally disappeared or murdered, their bodies were found outside the city or village or their were buried secretly in mass graves . According to an IHD reports: 469 corpses had been secretly buried in 114 mass graves in Turkey since 1989. Over the past years, authorities have unearthed 171 corpses from 26 mass graves.”
Also, crimes of enforced disappearances, murders and tortures in Turkey have occurred for the “furtherance of State policy”. Because; First; those who involved in committing such acts of disappearances and tortures have been members of military forces, gendarmes, police etc. Second; a large number of victims have been Kurdish political activist, member of pro-Kurdish parties, supporters of PKK or affiliated with them. Third; the existence of discriminatory laws, rules and formal state policy in Turkey against Kurds. "When it comes to the Kurdish question, the courts in Turkey are all too quick to label political opposition as terrorism," said Emma Sinclair-Webb, Turkey researcher at Human Rights Watch and author of the report. Forth, committing these crimes with this large-scale amount needed considerable financial and political support from the government. In addition, accordance to the Human Rights Watch: “In the early 1990's, there was a policy of rounding of hundreds and thousands of civilians, and giving no proper trial or judicial process, but rather taking them in, threatening them, torturing them. There was systematic torture throughout that period, and a lot of others simply were not heard of again and in that region, thousands disappeared or bodies were found too at the time, but not identified and there was no attempt to discover how the killings took place and who by. So there is massive legacy and impunity. For the past abuses, for the disappearances and killings".
In the result, crimes of enforced disappearances, murders and tortures in Turkey committed as crimes against Humanity and the Turkish authorities should be prosecuted for these crimes in the International Criminal Court or International tribunals.
Systematic and widespread torture in jails and extrajudicial killings and murders of tens of Kurds in every month especially in border areas by Iranian security forces, if closely examined could amount to crimes against humanity by Iranian authorities and they should be held accountable in ICC or international tribunals.
* Student in Lund University, Faculty of Law, in International Human Rights Law
