Along with the broad authority given to the police and the neighborhood watchmen, a new police brutality news is reflected to the press every day. There was an increase in police violence in Nusaybin district of Mardin after the police chased the children with a gun. Following this incident, news of police brutality came from Çorlu, Kadıköy, Zeytinburnu, Eyüp, Sultangazi, Keşan, Diyarbakır and Tarsus; which caused reaction in the society.

 

POLICE BRUTALITY AGAINST 4 THOUSAND 196 PEOPLE

 

In the reports prepared by the IHD Headquarters Documentation Unit, it was stated that 37 thousand people were killed by the security forces on the grounds that they did not comply with the “stop” warning between 2010-2020. According to the report, law enforcement has exceeded the power to use weapons, injuring 1,276 people. According to IHD data, 5,855 people were tortured in police custody in the last 10 years, and 4,196 people were tortured and mistreated by police and the watchmen in the middle of the street.

 

POLICE BRUTALITY IS NOT NEW

 

İHD Co-Chair Öztürk Türkdoğan stated that the main reason for the increase in violence is the 'impunity policy' and said: "The extra judicial executions of the law enforcement officers, torture and ill treatmen, excesses of power are not new in Turkey for the last 5 years. Events that occurred during the curfew came to the public agenda only because it was made more visible. The only way to deal with police brutality is to expose it."

 

VIOLENCE CONNECTED TO THE 'REGIME'

 

Stating that Turkey is a police state, Türkdoğan said: "When police shouts at the citizen 'I represent the state, I am the state', it indicates that you are living in a police state. That discourse shows that the police state gave that officer actual authority."

 

Emphasizing that what we are facing today is the 'regime of the state', Türkdoğan said: "Discussing police brutaliy while ignoring the regime is a mistake." Türkdoğan underlined that the reason of the increased police violence is the state, not stopping it.

 

SYSTEMATIC ATTACK

 

Underlining that the statements of police saying that they 'had to intervene' because the 'subject resisted' is the continuation of these attacks. Türkdoğan said: "The law enforcement officers are being taught what to say in these situations. We can say that these attacks are systematic if the Minister of INterior encourages these attacks with his statements and the government remains silent."

 

ONLY SOLUTION IS DEMOCRATIZATION

 

Türkdoğan listed the urgent measures to be taken against law enforcement as follows: "Starting with the President, the Minister of the Interior should clearly explain that the police will not be able to carry out such practices, and that the police will be dismissed and punished. Laws and decrees that cause impunity must be reviewed and changed.  Chief Public Prosecutors must be committed to carry out effective investigations. Investigation mechanisms need to work effectively. If these are done, these events will be reduced to a certain extent. Our main desire is to create a new and democratic Constitution and a democratic administration."

 

 

MA / Emrullah Acar