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Freedom of Association in Turkey: The example of the IHD

Hüsnü Öndül, Pdt of IHD

During the 1990s, the political tensions and resulting conflict in the south-eastern region of Turkey created a difficult environment for Human Rights defenders. The policies and methods adopted by the State to confront the armed movement of PKK have been a prolonged and serious concern for the civil society in Turkey. During the conflict, individuals and organizations working at unveiling human rights abuses experienced multiple obstacles and serious hostility to their work. Human rights defenders who denounced the dramatic effects of conflict on the situation of human rights in the south-east and questioned State policies were frequently perceived as a threat to the State and as PKK supporters. As a result, representatives of NGOs, lawyers, doctors, journalists and many others suffered from serious human rights abuses, including arbitrary detention, ill-treatment and torture, threats, but also disappearances and extrajudicial killings.

Since the foundation, IHD has been subject to pressures at different degrees. Two main periods can be mentioned with regard to harassments towards the association. For example, from 1986 to 1999 a total of 13 members were killed due to their human rights activities. In addition, one of the General Presidents, Akın Birdal (now Vice President of International Federation of Human Rights – FIDH) was attacked by two members of a paramilitary group allegedly linked to the State. Other members were threatened, imprisoned, prosecuted and tortured.

After 1999, pressures turned up to be more judicial and administrative than physical. In fact, the end of the conflict in the south-east and Turkey’s commitment to reforms in 2001 has brought about a promising change in the relationship between State institutions and the human rights community in the country. Hopefully, a certain decrease in the human rights violations is acknowledged by defenders as an initial easing of the environment in which they operate.

Types of pressures observed after 1999:

1. Closure of Branches:

Malatya, Gaziantep, Van, Konya, Bursa and İzmir branches were temporarily closed in 2000 in relation to their complaints against prison policies of the government.

2. Raids by the security forces to the Headquarters and Branches plus Confiscation of several documents together with PCs:

In 2000, İstanbul and Ankara Branches;
In 2001, IHD Headquarters, Bursa, Adana and Bingöl Branches;
In 2003, IHD Headquarters, Ankara and Siirt Branches.
IHD offices were repeatedly raided, vandalized and arbitrarily shut down.

3. Court cases and Investigations

From 2000 to 2002, a total of 437 court cases were launched against the Headquarters and 13 branches. 231 of those were concluded during that period: 160 ended with acquittal and 71 were judged as verdict of non-prosecution.

From 2003 to 2004,

Headquarters: 7 court cases against 53 IHD executives.
Diyarbakır Branch: 30 court cases and investigations only in 2004. (6 of those ongoing, 15 ended with non-pursuit, 5 with acquittal, and 2 with fine penalty). 64 members were subject to court cases and investigations.
İstanbul Branch: 25 court cases against 126 executives. 5 concluded with acquittal.
İzmir Branch: 11 court cases against 33 executives.
Siirt Branch: 19 court cases and investigations.
Bingöl Branch: 46 court cases and investigations against the chairperson.
Hakkari Branch: 8 court cases and investigation in 2003. All ongoing.
Mardin Branch: 1 court case concluded with penalty on the grounds that the chairperson hanged billboard posters in Kurdish without prior permission. 5 investigations against the chairperson ongoing.
Kocaeli Branch: 35 investigations against the chairperson due to press statements he released on human rights violations.
Malatya Branch: A court case for the closure of the Branch on the grounds of violation of the Association Law by holding extraordinary Congress instead of ordinary one.
Adıyaman Branch: 1 court case and 2 investigations in 2004 against the chairperson. The court case ended with penalty.

In addition, members of Van, Urfa, Muş, Hatay, İskenderun, Balıkesir, Tarsus, Karadeniz Ereğlisi, Trabzon Branches encountered investigations and court cases due to their press statements and speeches.

The judicial process was founded on:

- the Law No2911 concerning Meetings and Demonstrations,

- the Law No 2908 concerning Associations,

- the Turkish Penal Code (provisions restricting freedom of speech),

- the Anti-Terror Law.

4. Barricading activities

Barricading activities were used extensively between 2000 and 2003. Since the beginning of 2004, freedom of access to information has been relatively enlarged. However, such a right is rather limited for human rights organizations. As an example, IHD requested the Ministry of Justice the permission to give detainees a questionnaire concerning their health problems. Such permission was refused without providing any substantial ground. These obstructions were experienced by Diyarbakır Bar Association as well as by İzmir Bar Association while trying to screen all judicial files concerning torture cases.

5. Harassments by the Government

On sensitive issues such as torture or IDPs in Turkey, the Government tends to target Human Rights defenders as linked to illegal organizations. Recently, the Prime Minister clearly declared that the ones who denounce the systematic use of torture in Turkey have a connection with terrorist organizations, somehow. Such statements released both in Turkey and Strasbourg targeted IHD as well. Moreover, İzmir Branch was forbidden to use the municipal premises for its activities on 8 October 2004, with no justification.

Human Rights Association (İnsan Hakları Derneği ”İHD”) was founded, on 17^th July 1986, by 98 human rights defenders. İHD was founded in dark period because of the military coup that conducted on 12^th September 1980. After the military coup, there were so many violations against basic human rights-freedoms. For example; torture carried out in police custody and prisons intensified; deaths were increasingly common, political parties, associations and trade unions were banned and their executives were jailed.

20 years of struggling

The attempt to set up a foundation was initiated by relatives of the detainees and convicted prisoners. After nearly a year of efforts, 98 people including intellectuals, writers, journalists, doctors, lawyers, architects and engineers signed the foundation petition of Human Rights Association.

Today Human Rights Association continues its struggle with 33 branches, 2 representative offices and over 10.000 members and activists. There are many activities, such as; campaigns, preparing reports and so on, during the 20 years period of İHD. These activities are carried out for many purposes. For example; abolishing death penalty and DGM (State Security Court), freedom of expression, finding disappeared persons, peace, amnesty that aims to social peace, signature campaign for persons that expelled from their positions because of “1402” article, Not to Be Silent against Torture, Equal opportunities for disabled persons etc…

Murdered executives and members of İHD

Vedat Aydın (Founder member of the Diyarbakır Branch)

Sıddık Tan (Board member of the Batman Branch)İdris Özçelik (Board member of the Urfa Branch)

Kemal Kılıç (Board member of the Urfa Branch)

Orhan Karaağar (Board member of the Van Branch)

Cemal Akar (Board member of the Erzincan Branch)

Şevket Epözdemir (Board member of the Tatvan Branch)

Metin Can (Chairman of the Elazığ Branch)

Hasan Kaya (Member of the Elazığ Branch)

Muhsin Melik (Founder member of the Urfa Branch)

İkram Mihyas (Member of the İzmir Branch)

idar Şensoy (Member of the Istanbul Branch)