Turkey: End the incommunicado detention of Istanbul protesters

[Vikrant]

Police in Turkey are refusing to acknowledge that they have people in custody following mass detentions carried out during the night in Istanbul, Amnesty International said today.

More than a hundred are believed to have been detained during Saturday night's demonstrations in the areas of Taksim, the main focus of the protests, and the nearby districts of Harbiye and Mecidiyekoy. The actual number is not known but is likely to be significantly higher.

The Istanbul Bar Association told Amnesty International that they knew of around 70 named individuals who were seen being detained by police but whose whereabouts still cannot be verified.

"Following a night of shocking police violence, the authorities are now denying due process to those they have detained. The police must release them immediately or disclose their location and allow access to family members and lawyers," said Andrew Gardner, Amnesty International's researcher on Turkey, who is currently in Istanbul.

Amnesty International has received consistent and credible reports of demonstrators being beaten by police during arrest and transfer to custody and being denied access to food, water, and toilet facilities for up to 12 hours during the current protests in Istanbul which have taken place for almost three weeks.

The fact that the location of the protesters is not known heightens concerns that they may have been ill-treated by the police.

Police intervened with tear gas, water cannon and flash bangs against peaceful protesters in Taksim Square from around 8.30pm local time on Saturday. Amnesty International's researcher on Turkey, who was in Taksim Square at the time of the police intervention, said that the protests on the square were peaceful, and the violent police intervention unjustified.

"Protests have been have been overwhelmingly peaceful and there is no legitimate reason to prevent all forms of protest in the area," said Gardner.

"Small groups of demonstrators were chanting slogans in different areas of Taksim Square. The police first warned people to leave the square and then attacked protesters from at least two locations with tear gas, water cannon and flash bangs, forcing them off the square. The protesters were peaceful, simply chanting slogans.

"I saw tear gas and water cannon being used to clear Gezi Park. There are also reports of plastic bullets being used by the police and the detention of doctors who were staffing the makeshift medical facilities that had been operating there.

"I did not see any violence being used by the protesters against the police while I was observing the protests in Taksim or in nearby Cihangir from 8.30pm until the early hours of the morning. During this time police continually attacked protestors with tear gas and water cannon."

The number of people injured during the violent police intervention that took place throughout the night in different areas of Istanbul is not known but is thought to be in the hundreds. At one point police fired tear gas directly at a makeshift hospital outside the Divan hotel in Harbiye, where many people were being treated by doctors.

Today, as police violence continues sporadically in different areas of the city, police were seen detaining doctors who were treating injured protesters in makeshift hospital facilities at the Ramada hotel in Osmanbay, close to Taksim. The Minister of Health has previously stated that the makeshift medical facilities are illegal and that doctors may face prosecution.

"It is completely unacceptable that doctors should be threatened with prosecution for providing medical attention for people in need. The doctors must be released immediately and any threat to prosecute them removed," said Gardner.

The protests took place following a huge rally in Ankara in which Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan addressed supporters, attacking the Gezi Park protesters and threatening force to clear them from the park. A similar rally is planned for Sunday afternoon in Istanbul. Protesters are calling supporters to continue to march to Taksim today.

Turkey: End the incommunicado detention of Istanbul protesters | Amnesty International USA

 

[ekrem]

Amnesty-USA should first look at the arrests made in the Occupy events.
If it then still wants to talk it should write about Guantanamo or the torture camps the USA is operating in some Eastern-European countries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupy_movement_in_the_United_States

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_site

 

[waltky]

And the beat goes on, and the beat goes on...

No clear result after Turkish PM, protesters meet
June 14, 2013 — A meeting between Turkey's prime minister and representatives of anti-government protesters ended early Friday without a clear resolution on how to end the occupation of a central Istanbul park that has become a flashpoint for the largest political crisis of his 10-year rule.

The talks between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erogan and the protesters were an effort to resolve a sit-in at Taksim Square's Gezi Park without resorting to a police intervention to clear out the demonstrators. Erdogan on Thursday told the protesters he was giving them a "final warning" to leave the park. Although the late-night talks ended on what both sides indicated was a positive note, the possibility remained that protesters would refuse to leave and the police would be sent in to clear them out. A violent police crackdown on May 31 against a small environmental protest aiming to prevent a development project at the park sparked protests that spread to dozens of cities across Turkey. Since then, hundreds and often thousands of people have set up camp in the park.

The demonstrations have morphed into a broader protest against what many say is the prime minister's increasingly authoritarian style and his perceived attempts to impose his religious and conservative views on a country with secular laws — charges Erdogan strongly rejects. Nationwide, five people, including a police officer, have died and more than 5,000 protesters and 600 police have been reported injured in clashes. Speaking after the overnight meeting, Huseyin Celik, spokesman for Erdogan's Justice and Development Party, said construction work at the park would be frozen until a pending court decision is issued on whether the work is legal. A referendum could be held on the future of Gezi Park after that, he said.

Representatives from Taksim Solidarity, a group that has been organizing much of the activity in the Gezi occupation, said they had been promised the construction at the park would be frozen, and said they would take the meeting's conclusions back to the protesters later Friday. It was unclear what the response would be. Although Taksim Solidarity has emerged as the most high-profile group in the occupation, it does not speak for everyone camping in the park. Many say they have no affiliation to any group or party. The prime minister has maintained a hard line against the demonstrations, angrily denouncing the protesters as looters and vandals. He has said the unrest was instigated by a variety of interests, including foreign media and interest rate lobbies intent on destroying Turkey's international reputation and halting its economic growth.

As Erdogan held talks in the capital, Ankara, Istanbul's governor hosted a meeting through the night with any protesters who cared to join him at a cafe near Taksim Square — vowing to consult with them "until the morning if necessary" on finding a solution to the sit-in. "I hope this meeting will be a message to youngsters from different ages in Gezi Park ... we are trying to end this issue without (police) having to intervene," Huseyin Avni Mutlu told reporters on the way in.
- See more at: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/no-...rkish-pm-protesters-meet#sthash.hloYU2xW.dpuf

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Turkey unrest goes on despite end to park protest
June 16, 2013 — Riot police cordoned off streets, set up roadblocks and fired tear gas and water cannon to prevent anti-government protesters from converging on Istanbul's central Taksim Square on Sunday, unbowed even as Turkey's prime minister addressed hundreds of thousands of supporters a few kilometers away.

The contrasting scenes pointed to an increasing polarization in Turkish society — one which critics say Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has fueled with the fiery rhetoric he has maintained since they began more than two weeks ago. A police crackdown Saturday evening that ended an 18-day peaceful sit-in at Taksim Square's Gezi Park sparked daylong unrest on the streets of Istanbul, while police also broke up demonstrations in the capital, Ankara, and the southern city of Adana.

The protests began in Gezi Park more than two weeks ago and spread to dozens of cities across the country. Erdogan has blamed them on a nebulous plot to destabilize his government. Five people, including a policeman, have died and more than 5,000 have been injured, according to a Turkish rights group. Elected to his third term just two years ago with 50 percent of the vote and having steered his country to healthy economic growth, the protests are unlikely to prove an immediate threat to Erdogan's government. But they have dented his international image and exposed growing divisions within Turkish society. Never before in his 10-year tenure has Erdogan faced such an open or broad expression of discontent.

Protesters take cover from a water cannon during clashes with riot police at a demonstration in Ankara on June 16, 2013. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan rallied tens of thousands of his supporters in Istanbul today, hours after ordering a crackdown on anti-government protesters in a city park and sending tensions soaring in two weeks of unrest.

Critics have accused him of an increasingly autocratic way of governing and of trying to impose his conservative Muslim views on the lifestyles of the entire population in a country governed by secular laws — charges he vehemently denies. "They say, 'Mr. prime minister, you are too harsh,' and some (call me) 'dictator'," he said during his speech in his second political rally in as many days. "What kind of a dictator meets with people who occupy Gezi Park as well as the sincere environmentalists?" he questioned, referring to a meeting Thursday night with protest representatives.

Erdogan defended his decision to send police in to end the occupation of the park, where protesters had set up a tent city complete with a library, food distribution center, infirmary, children's activity area and plant nursery. Water cannon and tear gas forced thousands to flee, and cleanup crews ripped down the tents and food overnight. "I did my duty as prime minister," he told his supporters. "Otherwise there would be no point in my being in office."

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