As Turkey marks the 43rd anniversary of the September 12, 1980 military coup, calls resurface for a military prison in Kurdish-majority Diyarbakır (Amed) to gain museum status, in order to highlight post-coup human rights abuses endured within it’s walls by Kurdish victims. Demands also resurge for the country to forge a truly democratic constitution to protect the rights of all its citizens, preventing such atrocities from reoccuring in the future.
The enduring impact of the coup era on modern Turkey has been echoed on the anniversary in public statements across Turkey, including from the cities of İstanbul, Diyarbakır (Amed), Urfa (Riha), Hatay, Tunceli (Dersim) and Mersin.
In Diyarbakır, a significant focus was on the aforementioned military prison ‘No. 5’, infamous for gross human rights violations following the 12 September coup. Adalet Kaya, an MP for the pro-Kurdish Green Left Party, stated that the prison should serve as a “museum of shame”, echoing the broader sentiment shared by various political actors.
Human Rights Association (IHD) İstanbul Branch Chair Gülseren Yoleri laid out comprehensive recommendations for preventing future coups, including the abolishment of existing laws that violate human rights and the establishment of a new constitution based on democratic principles and freedoms.
Also in İstanbul, İsmet Evren, a member of the 78’ers Initiative, noted that the existing political environment, shaped by the 1980 coup, had paved the way for what they described as the “Erdoğanist monist regime”.
In the southeastern province of Urfa (Riha), the Urfa Bar Association Human Rights Centre organised a panel discussion on the legal repercussions of the 1980 coup. Gültan Kışanak, former co-mayor of Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality and current prisoner in the Kobanê Trial, sent a letter that was read during the panel discussion. Kışanak pointed out that the Kurdish issue is a problem of discrimination and made a case for the similarities between the ongoing Kobanê Trial and the 12 September 1980 trials. “With our honourable stance and resistance, we will disperse this darkness,” she stated.
Kışanak explicitly stated that both trials aim to suppress the possibility of peace and solution in Turkey, despite the fact that the court panel for the Kobanê Trial does not wear a uniform symbolising the dominance of governmental authority over their impartiality.
Turkish journalist Gökçer Tahincioğlu, known for his human rights reporting, noted that the individuals responsible for plotting the coup lived without facing substantial judicial repercussions. He lamented that their sentences were reduced due to death, and no decisive actions were taken to strip them of their ranks.
