Torture leads to 2 suicides… The son and the mother… #OnurYaserCan #HaticeCan

Mother follows son into suicide following latter’s police torture Hatice Can reportedly jumped from a balcony on March 2, three-and-a-half years after her son, Onur Yaser Can, committed suicide on June 23  

A social fabric roundup: “One-third of Turks are poor or needy: Ministry?s report

One-third of Turks are poor or needy: Ministry?s report Nearly one-third of Turkish people, 23.6 million, are poor or needy *********** Behind the facade of Turkey?s recent economic growth Numbers do not lie, but they do deceive. Turkey?s GDP has more than doubled in the last decade, the International Monetary Fund expects the Turkish economy … Read more

EFD Rights Watch: Hate Speech in Turkey’s Media… Missing Shepherds Case…Conscientious Objector Jailed…

Report Reveals Hate Speech in Turkey’s Media from Bianet :: English A recent report released by Hrant Dink Foundation revealed hate speech practises in Turkey’s media which mostly targeted Jewish and Armenian communities Turkey Found Guilty on Missing Shepherds Case from Bianet :: English The European Court of Human Rights found Turkey guilty on the … Read more

EFD Rights Watch: “Turkey’s miscarriage of justice”, İsmail Beşikçi receives Dink Award, TIHV report: Torture and Ill-Treatment on the Rise

Turkey’s miscarriage of justice Washington Post Turkey’s courts have been working overtime to throw government opponents of all political stripes behind bars. Since 2007, the government has run a series of trials against an alleged ultra-nationalist terrorist organization called Ergenekon, charging Turkey convicts more than 300 soldiers in coup trial (VIDEO) from Yahoo news Turkey … Read more

Meanwhile, Grup Yorum (@Grup_YORUM) band members are subjected to torture. Explicitly, with no shame…

Many members of a radical left wing music band, Grup Yorum, have been recently arrested after a suicide bombing attack to a police station in Istanbul by the illegal organization this band is close to. However, Grup Yorum is around for ages, has a public reputation and a few years ago, more than 30 thousand … Read more

EFD Rights Watch: “A Single Person Arrested in Mob Attack Against Alevi-Kurdish Family, “William Burroughs’ Turkish publishers’ obscenity trial postponed and more..

A Single Person Arrested in Mob Attack Against Alevi-Kurdish Family from Bianet :: English Officials arrested the traditional Ramadan drummer as part of their investigation into the attack against an Alevi-Kurdish family in the eastern province of Malatya. Opposition deputies who arrived in the province also castigated the authorities for their inadequate response to the … Read more

In the mean time, “Turkey Ranks First in Violations in between 1959-2011” at ECHR…EFD Rights Watch

  Turkey Ranks First in Violations in between 1959-2011 from Bianet :: English Turkey ranks first among the number of countries convicted for rights violations by the European Court of Human Rights in between 1959-2011. Will the Justice Be Secured at the 107th Hearing? from Bianet :: English The court will give a final ruling … Read more

EFD Rights Watch: ’80 coup trial roundup; Turkey on religious rights and more…

Military Coup Case Begins with Victims’ Cry for Justice Two generals didn’t attend the first sitting of the case but relatives of the victims and rights’ activist were there. They all demanded the investigation to be enlarged and the trial to be founded on “crimes against humanity”. Cabinet intervenes in historic ?80 coup trial The … Read more

Museum of Shame (Utanç Müzesi) in Ankara

This is a newly opened museum in Ankara which mostly consists of torture materials after the coup d’etat. the Museum was initiated by an NGO, Devrimci 78’liler Federasyonu, victims of coup d’etat… I could not get an official web address-maybe they don’t have… Some images:   These four soldiers were murderers of a leftist publisher, … Read more

Azadiya Welat, the Kurdish daily, banned again.

  Azadiya Welat Newspaper Banned – Again Azadiya Welat, the only nation-wide newspaper in Turkey publishing in Kurdish, has been banned for the duration of 15 days. This is the ninth publication ban for the daily. Its printing house in Diyarbakır was searched by the police. BİA Media Monitoring Report 2011 First Quarter – Full … Read more

” Physicians group alleges US conducted illegal research on detainees

http://www.thewe.cc/thewe_/images_5/___/torture/us_detainees_on_flight.jpe

Experiments in Torture: Physicians group alleges US conducted illegal research on detainees

from Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) today released evidence it says indicates that the Bush administration conducted “illegal and unethical human experimentation and research” on detainees’ response to torture while in CIA custody after 9/11. The group says such illegal activity would violate the Nuremburg Code, and could open the door to prosecutions. Their report is based on publicly available documents, and explores the participation of medical professionals in the CIA’s “enhanced interrogation program.” Download the full report at phrtorturepapers.org.

Boing Boing spoke with the lead medical author of the report, Dr. Scott Allen, who is co-director of the Center For Prisoner Health and Human Rights at Brown University, and Medical Advisor to PHR.

Read more

A book on December 19-26, 2000 operation in Turkish prisons…

hapishanelerde katliam / massacre in prisons:

During the week of December 19-26, 2000, 10,000 Turkish soldiers violently occupied 48 prisons to end two months of hunger strikes and ?death fasts? by hundreds of political prisoners. The hunger strikers were protesting the state?s plan to transfer its prisoners from large wards to US-style ?F-type? cells holding one to three occupants. Operation ?Return to Life? ? which left at least 31 prisoners and two soldiers dead ? lasted a few hours in most prisons, and up to three days at one prison. Eight prisoners were reportedly ?disappeared,? and at least 426 prisoners have been wounded. 1,005 prisoners have been transferred to F-type cells.

The armed operation ostensibly aimed to ?rescue? members of  illegal, radical left organizations from ?forced? starvation at the hands of their leaders. But the official number of prisoners conducting death fasts has reportedly increased to 353 since the operation, up from 282. Unofficial reports say that up to 2,000 prisoners are starving themselves, with the active support of 10,000 others. Human rights groups suspect security forces of burning prisoners with firebombs during the operation. According to the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey, some bodies were buried without being identified, and other deceased prisoners? families and lawyers were not admitted to the autopsies.

in turkish

Read more