Rights Organizations: quake victims tortured by Turkish security forces

Omar Turkmen, who was a victim of massive earthquakes that killed more than 50,000 people and devastated large swaths of Northern Kurdistan and Turkey on February 6, believes police officials would have provided him with a tent and food as temperatures plunged below zero in his hometown of Antakya, the hardest-hit province. Not at all, but instead of that he got was a severe beating that left him amnesiac and in a constant state of fear.

"The state not only did nothing for us, but it also treats us like criminals," Turkman said.

The apparently indiscriminate violence applied by the security forces in the earthquake zone, where the Emergency Law is still in force, resulted in the death of one person earlier in custody.

“It is as if the earthquake gave them the chance to reveal their true faces, to act without restraint,” Umit Buyukdağ, secretary general of the independent Progressive Lawyers Association told Al-Monitor.

The state of emergency, according to Buyukdağ, "serves as an additional cover for lawlessness among security officials who are confident that they will not face the consequences."

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International confirmed in a joint report issued yesterday that they documented 13 cases of violence committed by the Turkish police and gendarmerie in the earthquake zone, affecting 34 male victims, and Syrian refugees have become major targets amid escalating hostility against immigrants.

The report indicated that most of them said that they were attacked while participating in search and rescue efforts for buildings destroyed by the earthquake or while passing through neighborhoods in Antakya. One case concerned five young Kurds from Amed, who traveled to Adiyaman as volunteers. They were at a search and rescue site when they were beaten by the gendarmes, an hour they were taken to a police station where 30 policemen assaulted them, punching, kicking and beating them with "hands, clubs and sticks".

Seven Syrian refugees interviewed by the rights groups said that security forces addressed them as “the hateful Syrian,” and that verbal abuse often escalated into physical violence and beatings.

Torture and ill-treatment in police custody became common and escalated sharply following the failed attempt to overthrow Erdogan in 2016, according to Al-Monitor.

Last week, three Kurdish workers in Bodrum, a coastal resort, were attacked by a group with air rifles, machetes and metal bars because they were addressing each other in Kurdish, according to one of the victims. This week, a car with an Amed license plate was attacked by another mob in the city of Bursa, where anti-Kurdish violence is escalating.

Impunity extends beyond Turkey's borders to parts of northern Syria under Turkish occupation. At least four Kurds were killed when Turkish mercenaries from "Ahrar al-Sharqiya" opened fire on a Kurdish family while they were celebrating Newroz, in the town of Janders on March 20.

"Turkey has allowed these fighters to mistreat people living in areas under their control with impunity, risking complicity in abuse," said Adam Coogle, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

 The agency added, "As an occupying force and supporter of the local factions operating in the areas under its control in northern Syria, Turkey is obligated to investigate into these killings and ensure that those responsible are held accountable."

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ANHA