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A human rights report on Turkey, published on International Human Rights Day 10 December, shows that the rising trend in human rights violations in the country continued during 2022.
“As human rights defenders, we are locked into making unchanging analyses year on year about rights violations,” said the report prepared by the Human Rights Association (İHD) and the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV).
The report said that rights violations in Turkey had reached alarming dimensions in 2022, as a result of government policies that turn every issue into a security issue, polarise society even further, and see violence as the answer to everything.
The report provides a detailed list of rights violations based on data gathered by the two organisations during the first 11 months of 2022. The results show that:
– At least 96 people died and 55 were injured due to armed clashes in the country.
– At least 274 people were killed in Turkey’s cross-border military operations in North and East Syria and northern Iraq.
– Nationalist attacks and hate crimes killed 15 people and injured 41.
– At least 1521 workers lost their lives in the first 10 months of 2022 in Turkey as a result of work accidents/murders.
– Men killed at least 308 women and 36 children.
The İHD and TİHV also stated that there were serious complaints about the violations of the right to life of civilians, especially in airstrikes and drone attacks conducted by the Turkish Armed Forces in their cross-border operations.
“There are also some complaints and allegations of violations regarding the use of chemical weapons during cross-border operations. All these complaints and allegations of violations need to be investigated independently and effectively in accordance with the principles of international law,” the report adds.
In addition the report argues that torture has become the most dominant human rights problem in Turkey, due to the government’s mentality that prioritises the oppression and control of its citizens. According to the report, 1,130 people have applied to TİHV reporting having been subject to torture and other forms of ill-treatment since the beginning of 2022. Meanwhile, the İHD has documented 980 people who have been subject to torture and maltreatment while in the custody of security forces in the same period. The data of both institutions indicate that more than 5,000 people have been subject to torture and maltreatment by the police in the same period while they were trying to enjoy their right to protest. Meanwhile, 310 prison inmates also submitted complaints of torture and maltreatment to the TİHV.
As of December 2022, there are 336,315 people in prisons in Turkey, while according to the data published by the Ministry of Justice, the total capacity of prisons is 286,797. The total number of people stripped of their freedom reaches 773,951, including 437,636 people on probation, meaning one in every hundred citizens is under direct surveillance by the state.
