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It seems that kurds want to save their rights acquired during AKP governance.
Kurds demonstration in Istanbul condemned the military coup against democracy.
The organization wants independent monitors to have access to the detainees in all facilities. Amnesty International says more than 10,000 people have been detained since the failed coup that began on July 15. The rights group said, "Turkish police in Ankara and Istanbul are holding detainees in stress positions for up to 48 hours, denying them food, water and medical treatment, and verbally abusing and threatening them. In the worst cases some have been subjected to severe beatings and torture, including rape."
A Turkish official, who asked to remain anonymous told Middle East Eye, the allegations are untrue. "The idea that Turkey, a country seeking EU membership, would not respect the law is absurd," he said. "Just yesterday we released 1,200 military personnel because all we care about is concrete evidence of complicity in this grave assault against our democracy." Amnesty International's Europe director John Dalhuisen says he is alarmed by its findings. "Reports of abuse including beatings and rape in detention are extremely alarming, especially given the scale of detentions that we have seen in the past week," he said. "The grim details that we have documented are just a snapshot of the abuses that might be happening in places of detention." "It is absolutely imperative that the Turkish authorities halt these abhorrent practices and allow international monitors to visit all these detainees in the places they are being held," he said.
Amnesty International said detainees have been denied access to lawyers and family members. They didn't even know what they are being charged with, Amnesty International said. "These are grave violations of the right to a fair trial which is enshrined in both Turkey's national law and international law," Dalhuisen said. Dalhuisen said the country hasn't responded to the allegations. "Despite chilling images and videos of torture that have been widely broadcast across the country, the government has remained conspicuously silent on the abuse," Dalhuisen said. "Failing to condemn ill-treatment or torture in these circumstances is tantamount to condoning it." Amnesty International wants the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture to conduct an emergency visit to Turkey to monitor condition.
The unnamed Turkish official conversely wants an "unbiased account of the legal steps that are being taken against people who murdered nearly 250 civilians in cold blood," the official said. Since the failed coup, 13,165 people have been detained, including 8,838 soldiers, 2,101 judges and prosecutors, 1,485 police officers and 689 civilians, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told rallies across the nation by video Saturday night. Turkey's government is setting up an inner cabinet to oversee the state of emergency it declared after last week's botched coup. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim will lead the council, which will include ministers from justice, interior, finance, foreign, education, defense and labor.
Turkish detainees tortured after failed coup, Amnesty International says
Amnesty Int. says Turkish detainees tortured after failed coup attempt...
Turkish detainees tortured after failed coup, Amnesty International says
July 24, 2016 -- Amnesty International claims credible evidence shows detainees in Turkey are being beaten, tortured and, in some cases, raped in the aftermath of a failed coup.
The organization wants independent monitors to have access to the detainees in all facilities. Amnesty International says more than 10,000 people have been detained since the failed coup that began on July 15. The rights group said, "Turkish police in Ankara and Istanbul are holding detainees in stress positions for up to 48 hours, denying them food, water and medical treatment, and verbally abusing and threatening them. In the worst cases some have been subjected to severe beatings and torture, including rape."
A Turkish official, who asked to remain anonymous told Middle East Eye, the allegations are untrue. "The idea that Turkey, a country seeking EU membership, would not respect the law is absurd," he said. "Just yesterday we released 1,200 military personnel because all we care about is concrete evidence of complicity in this grave assault against our democracy." Amnesty International's Europe director John Dalhuisen says he is alarmed by its findings. "Reports of abuse including beatings and rape in detention are extremely alarming, especially given the scale of detentions that we have seen in the past week," he said. "The grim details that we have documented are just a snapshot of the abuses that might be happening in places of detention." "It is absolutely imperative that the Turkish authorities halt these abhorrent practices and allow international monitors to visit all these detainees in the places they are being held," he said.
Amnesty International said detainees have been denied access to lawyers and family members. They didn't even know what they are being charged with, Amnesty International said. "These are grave violations of the right to a fair trial which is enshrined in both Turkey's national law and international law," Dalhuisen said. Dalhuisen said the country hasn't responded to the allegations. "Despite chilling images and videos of torture that have been widely broadcast across the country, the government has remained conspicuously silent on the abuse," Dalhuisen said. "Failing to condemn ill-treatment or torture in these circumstances is tantamount to condoning it." Amnesty International wants the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture to conduct an emergency visit to Turkey to monitor condition.
The unnamed Turkish official conversely wants an "unbiased account of the legal steps that are being taken against people who murdered nearly 250 civilians in cold blood," the official said. Since the failed coup, 13,165 people have been detained, including 8,838 soldiers, 2,101 judges and prosecutors, 1,485 police officers and 689 civilians, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told rallies across the nation by video Saturday night. Turkey's government is setting up an inner cabinet to oversee the state of emergency it declared after last week's botched coup. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim will lead the council, which will include ministers from justice, interior, finance, foreign, education, defense and labor.
Turkish detainees tortured after failed coup, Amnesty International says
Amnesty Int. says Turkish detainees tortured after failed coup attempt...
Turkish detainees tortured after failed coup, Amnesty International says
July 24, 2016 -- Amnesty International claims credible evidence shows detainees in Turkey are being beaten, tortured and, in some cases, raped in the aftermath of a failed coup.
The organization wants independent monitors to have access to the detainees in all facilities. Amnesty International says more than 10,000 people have been detained since the failed coup that began on July 15. The rights group said, "Turkish police in Ankara and Istanbul are holding detainees in stress positions for up to 48 hours, denying them food, water and medical treatment, and verbally abusing and threatening them. In the worst cases some have been subjected to severe beatings and torture, including rape."
A Turkish official, who asked to remain anonymous told Middle East Eye, the allegations are untrue. "The idea that Turkey, a country seeking EU membership, would not respect the law is absurd," he said. "Just yesterday we released 1,200 military personnel because all we care about is concrete evidence of complicity in this grave assault against our democracy." Amnesty International's Europe director John Dalhuisen says he is alarmed by its findings. "Reports of abuse including beatings and rape in detention are extremely alarming, especially given the scale of detentions that we have seen in the past week," he said. "The grim details that we have documented are just a snapshot of the abuses that might be happening in places of detention." "It is absolutely imperative that the Turkish authorities halt these abhorrent practices and allow international monitors to visit all these detainees in the places they are being held," he said.
Amnesty International said detainees have been denied access to lawyers and family members. They didn't even know what they are being charged with, Amnesty International said. "These are grave violations of the right to a fair trial which is enshrined in both Turkey's national law and international law," Dalhuisen said. Dalhuisen said the country hasn't responded to the allegations. "Despite chilling images and videos of torture that have been widely broadcast across the country, the government has remained conspicuously silent on the abuse," Dalhuisen said. "Failing to condemn ill-treatment or torture in these circumstances is tantamount to condoning it." Amnesty International wants the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture to conduct an emergency visit to Turkey to monitor condition.
The unnamed Turkish official conversely wants an "unbiased account of the legal steps that are being taken against people who murdered nearly 250 civilians in cold blood," the official said. Since the failed coup, 13,165 people have been detained, including 8,838 soldiers, 2,101 judges and prosecutors, 1,485 police officers and 689 civilians, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told rallies across the nation by video Saturday night. Turkey's government is setting up an inner cabinet to oversee the state of emergency it declared after last week's botched coup. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim will lead the council, which will include ministers from justice, interior, finance, foreign, education, defense and labor.
Turkish detainees tortured after failed coup, Amnesty International says
It still better than Gitmo.
When thousands of opposition members and ruling party supporters filled Istanbul's Taksim Square Sunday to condemn the failed coup attempt against Erdogan, they illustrated the kind of people power that stopped the coup from succeeding. The display of unity was a rare sight in a deeply polarized nation that has a long history of coups. The mood was largely jovial; opponents and supporters of Erdogan celebrated the one area where they agree: a coup would bring more instability and problems than it would solve.
Turkish soldiers detain Staff Sergeant Erkan Cikat, suspected of being involved in the recent coup attempt, in Marmaris, Turkey
But along with display of unity was deep apprehension, especially as Turkey embarks on a period under a state of emergency. "We are worried of course about the state of emergency because to a certain extent our freedom will be restricted," said Sermin Dalgic, an opposition supporter attending the rally. "We want a country where we can freely speak our minds and hold rallies. That's the kind of country we want to be," she said. In the short and long term, that goal appears to be in question.
Entrenched secularism
The rally had the full blessing of the Erdogan government, which used it to further bolster the legitimacy of his rule and, more importantly, its efforts to purge opponents, especially followers of his rival, former imam Fethullah Gulen. Erdogan accuses Gulen's massive movement of being behind the coup attempt, a charge Gulen - in self-imposed exile in the United States for 17 years - denies. Reports of torture continued to emerge on Monday; lawyers said some of the arrested soldiers have been subjected to beatings and rape. Erdogan is purging opponents and emerging more powerful - and freer to push an Islamic agenda. The Turkish leader has declared the country will raise a "religious generation" and is leading a drive to build mosques.
Melda Onur, a former lawmaker with the main opposition, the secularist Republican People's Party, does not believe it will be so easy for Erdogan, and thinks the same people power that stopped the tanks the night of the coup attempt, will stop Turkey from becoming an Islamist state. But she is worried. "It is the cleansing of radical Islamic elements, but on the other hand, it is resisting not leaving its place to those who want a secular democratic republic. We do not know if it is a real cleansing, purging, or something done just to keep the position," she said. Onur, like others, says secularism is too deeply entrenched in Turkey, and believes the country's position between the Muslim world in the East and Europe in the West is a guarantee that Turks will never accept an Islamist state. "They see the situation of the countries that are not secular in this region. This country has never envied Iraq, Syria or Iran because they know what it is. But on the other hand, they have never envied European liberalism either," Onur said. On that point, some Islamists agree.
MORE
The Supreme Military Council, gathering top commanders of NATO's second-largest army, met a day after Turkey discharged close to 1,700 officers - including 149 generals and admirals - suspected of involvement in the failed July 15 coup attempt. A senior Turkish official described the purges as "dishonorable discharge." The council, which decides on promotions and retirements, was expected to announce more dismissals on Thursday, while two senior generals offered their resignations as the key meeting was taking place.
Turkey declared a state of emergency following the violent coup attempt that led to 290 deaths, and embarked on a large-scale clampdown on people suspected of ties to U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom the government accuses of masterminding the coup. Nearly 16,000 people were detained over suspected links to the failed uprising, and about half of them were formally arrested to face trial. Tens of thousands of state employees have also been dismissed for alleged ties to Gulen, while schools, dormitories and hospitals associated with his movement have been closed down. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu announced Thursday that 88 employees of his ministry were dismissed, including two ambassadors. Authorities issued warrants for the detention of 89 journalists as the clampdown extended to the media. Dozens of media organizations - most of them also linked to Gulen - were ordered shuttered late Wednesday.
People wave Turkish flags as they take part in an anti coup rally at Taksim square in Istanbul, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Turkey's polarized factions should learn from their mistakes and overcome their antagonism, the main opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said during an interview with The Associated Press.
The media organizations include 16 television stations, 23 radio stations, 15 magazines, 29 publishing houses and 45 newspapers - including a Gulen-linked children's television station and opposition daily Taraf. Gulen, who lives in the United States and runs a global network of schools and foundations, has repeatedly denied any knowledge of the coup attempt. Turkey has branded Gulen's movement a terrorist organization and wants the cleric extradited. The U.S. has told Turkey to present evidence against Gulen and let the U.S. extradition process take its course. Yildirim, accompanied by the top brass, visited the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, modern Turkey's founder, before the council meeting, and vowed to overcome all terror threats. "There is no doubt that we will eradicate all terrorist organizations threatening our state, our nation and our territorial integrity," Yildirim said, reading from a message he wrote in the mausoleum's visitors' book.
The military Council meeting was originally scheduled for the first week of August but was brought forward following the coup attempt. Its location was moved from the military headquarters to the prime minister's office in a sign that the government aims to place the military under stronger civilian control. Late Wednesday, the government issued a decree that removed the paramilitary police force and the coast guard from military command and placed them under the control of the Interior Ministry. Turkish officials have said they believe the coup plot was put into force in haste before the Council in August, when many officers suspected of links to Gulen would have been discharged.
News from The Associated Press
Erdogan also rejected Western criticism of purges under way in Turkey's military and other state institutions which saw more than 60,000 people detained, removed or suspended over suspected links with the coup attempt, suggesting some in the United States were on the side of the plotters. "The attitude of many countries and their officials over the coup attempt in Turkey is shameful in the name of democracy," Erdogan told hundreds of supporters at the presidential palace in the Turkish capital. "Any country and any leader who does not worry about the life of Turkish people and our democracy as much as they worry about the fate of coupists are not our friends," said Erdogan, who narrowly escaped capture and perhaps death on the night of the coup.
Turkey's Western allies have condemned the coup in which Erdogan said 237 people were killed and more than 2,100 were wounded, but have been rattled by the scale of the crackdown in the aftermath. Images of detained soldiers with bruises and bandages have worried civil rights groups over mistreatment. The purges have targeted supporters of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, accused by Ankara of masterminding the July 15-16 failed coup, but Erdogan's critics say he is using the measures to crack down on any dissent. Erdogan also criticized the European Council and the European Union, which Turkey aspires to be a part of, for their failure to pay a visit to offer condolences, saying their criticism was 'shameful'.
The Director of U.S. National Intelligence, James Clapper, said on Thursday the purges were harming the fight against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq by sweeping away Turkish officers who had worked closely with the United States. The head of U.S. Central Command, General Joseph Votel, said he believed some of the military figures whom the United States had worked with were in jail. Votel's comments drew condemnation from Erdogan. "Instead of thanking this country which repelled a coup attempt, you take the side of the coup plotters. The putschist is in your country already," Erdogan said, referring to Gulen, who denied any involvement in the coup attempt.
In a statement released by the U.S. military on Friday, General Votel said any claims that he was involved in a failed coup attempt in Turkey were "unfortunate and completely inaccurate". White House spokesman Eric Schultz has also dismissed claims that Votel supported the coup plotters, and referred to U.S. President Barack Obama's comments from last week saying any reports that Washington had prior knowledge of the attempted overthrow were completely false. Erdogan has blamed Gulen for masterminding the attempted coup and has called on Washington to extradite him. Turkish officials have suggested the U.S. can extradite him based on strong suspicion while President Obama last week insisted Turkey must first present evidence of Gulen's alleged complicity in the failed coup.
MILITARY SHAKE-UP
Suspected Gulenists are now being purged in their thousands in a wave of arrests and sackings and Mr Erdogan has declared a state of emergency. But what do we know about the movement, and what does it want?
What is the Gulen movement?
A well-organised community of people - not a political party - named after the US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen. He is regarded by followers as a spiritual leader and sometimes described as Turkey's second most powerful man. The imam promotes a tolerant Islam which emphasises altruism, modesty, hard work and education. He is also a recluse with a heart condition and diabetes who lives in a country estate in the US state of Pennsylvania. The movement - known in Turkey as Hizmet, or service - runs schools all over Turkey and around the world, including in Turkic former Soviet Republics, Muslim countries such as Pakistan and Western nations including Romania and the US, where it runs more than 100 schools. Followers are said to be numerous in Turkey, possibly in the millions, and are believed to hold influential positions in institutions from the police and secret services to the judiciary and Mr Erdogan's ruling AK Party itself.
How did the movement emerge?
Mr Gulen made a name for himself by arguing that young Turks had lost their way and that education was the best response, a position that attracted a growing number of middle class followers and led the movement to open schools and expand into business. As the movement grew, followers began taking jobs inside the machinery of state. Some, such as commentator Mustafa Akyol, say the aim was to transform Turkey away from secularism, despite Mr Gulen's claims to be focused more on faith and morality than politics. After the military coup of 1980, the ruling generals suspected him of trying to topple the government and he was arrested after six years on the run. He was freed but eventually charged in 2000 and decided to remain in the US, where he was having medical treatment.
Both Mr Erdogan and Mr Gulen portray themselves as pious Muslims in opposition to secularism - but some see a slight difference in their approaches. Mr Erdogan is seen as favouring a Turkish version of political Islam, according to Mustafa Akyol, while Mr Gulen presents himself as espousing a form of cultural rather than political Islam. Many say the ultimate goals of the Gulen movement remain unclear. "I know that their interest in education is not enough for them, they want more, but what?" author Fehmi Koru told the BBC. "I suggested in my columns that they set up their own party and ask for a mandate to run the country. They did not do that."
How did Mr Gulen and Mr Erdogan become rivals?
