Taksim prohibition on 1 May 2013: State of Emergency-like situation in İstanbul

Human Rights Association (İHD) Central Executive Board
Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (HRFT) Executive Board

Joint Press Release
 
Taksim prohibition on 1 May 2013: State of Emergency-like situation in İstanbul

On 1 May, several fundamental rights and freedoms of workers and of the general population, notably the right to life, freedom of expression, of assembly and of organisation as well as the right to housing, were seriously violated in İstanbul Province. The state of emergency was virtually put in place by the governing authorities.

Workers, wanting to exercise their fundamental rights and freedom by democratically reacting to grave violations  were repressed.

Using “excessive force”, including torture and ill-treatment, police officers wounded several people with tear gas bomb canisters. The lives of some of those wounded are at risk such as Dilan Alp, Serdal Gül, Zeynel Sabaz and a fourth unidentified person. In light of the data and information gathered from various sources, primarily from our İstanbul Branches’ monitoring reports, we have reasons to believe that police officers acted with the intention of directly wounding or killing.

Furthermore three of the 72 people who were taken into custody were juveniles and were kept in the Security Department instead of being transferred to the Juvenile Department; the ambulances were forbidden from entering the demonstration area; despite the Ali Güneş v. Turkey judgement of the European Court of Human Rights which recognizes the widespread and intensive use of gas as torture and ill-treatment. Lastly, it was discovered that more than two thousand gas bombs were produced with chemical agents in a couple of hours and used. Thus we can assert that the police intervention amounts to torture and ill-treatment.

The Governor of İstanbul’s claim, that “the intervention was proportional to the demonstration”, is  outrageous.

The prohibition of Taksim Square during the  celebration of Labor Day on 1 May revealed that the governing authorities are ready to do anything for the so-called urban renewal. The use of tear gas on people demonstrating in Taksim against “urban transformation”, in the European neighbourhood of İstanbul Province on 1 May, is a shame for humanity.

Yesterday’s experience together with the prohibition of Taksim Square, which is a space of collective memory, due to this year’s construction, clearly showed that the governing powers aim to close it off to workers and all democratic powers forever and intend to erase the reminiscence of massacres and suffering from people’s minds.

In short, severe violations were committed in terms of democracy and human rights in İstanbul Province on 1 May 2013. Nonetheless, the judicial bodies in İstanbul remain still. What happened yesterday showed, once again, that the law in Turkey does not protect everyone. We have witnessed the  police becoming the prosecutor. There is nothing we can say to the public prosecutors working in İstanbul if they are willing to consent to so many crimes being committed at the same time. But experience shows once again that the fundamental rights and freedoms could be suspended at any time and with no reason in Turkey. An arbitrary, authoritarian, (and security) regime has been dominating the State’s administration. We, human rights defenders, have been seriously concerned with this situation.

Press contacts
Arthur Manet (French, English, Spanish) – Tel: +33 6 72 28 42 94 (in Paris) – Email : presse@fidh.org
Audrey Couprie (French, English, Spanish) – Tel: +33 6 8 05 91 57 (in Paris) – Email : presse@fidh.org

Category: Media Monitoring