Human Rights Watch – “Still critical”, Prospects in 2005 for Internally Displaced Kurds in Turkey

Excerpt

On December 17, 2004, the European Union (E.U.) decided that Turkey should
continue to the next stage of its application to join the union by setting a date for the
start of formal negotiations for full membership. An impressive track record of human
rights reforms—including the abolition of the death penalty, new protections against
torture, greater freedom of expression, and increased respect for minorities—prompted
the positive decision. Unfortunately the reforms did not help the 378,335 people who
were internally displaced in Turkey during the 1990s.

Quotes

Highlights

• Since the testimony of fellow villagers who were eye-witnesses to the destruction is potentially excluded from this list because such evidence is not mentioned explicitly in the regulation, the testimony of the muhtar (the government representative elected in all villages) will be critical. There is, however, a long history of muhtars being subjected to various forms of pressure by gendarmerie and governors. At the peak of the displacements, several muhtars were murdered. Mehmet Gürkan, muhtar of Akçayurt in Diyarbakır province, forcibly evacuated on July 7, 1994, held a press conference and reported that gendarmes had tortured him to tell television journalists that the PKK had destroyed his village. In fact, he said, security forces had burned Akçayurt. When he returned to the village a month later an eye-witness saw soldiers detain him and take him away in a helicopter. He was never seen again.71 Since that time, pressures ranging from threats of violence to withdrawal of official favour and funding have remained common. As a result, some muhtars may be reluctant to provide evidence to the commissions concerning the destruction of villages by state security forces.

Sources

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ak%C3%A7ayurt,_Hani

• https://www.hrw.org/reports/2005/turkey0305/