Victims of Turkish crackdown deserve more than a pardon

Victims of Turkish crackdown deserve more than a pardon


Every day you hear about the thousands of people who have been affected by government decrees issued under Turkey’s ongoing state of emergency. In a country like Turkey, where thousands have been arrested and hundreds die in violence each month, lives can easily be turned into numbers. Today I want to share one story, one life behind these thousands.

Gökhan Açıkkollu was a young history teacher. After the July 15, 2016 coup attempt, he was fired from his job under an emergency decree. On July 25, 2016, he was detained due to allegations of having links the Gülen movement, accused of carrying out the coup.

أكين بيردال: تركيا الوصول إلى نقطة اللاعودة..

أكين بيردال: تركيا الوصول إلى نقطة اللاعودة..

ربما يكون أكين بيردال أشهر النشطاء المدافعين عن حقوق الإنسان في تركيا. وهو المؤسس المشارك لرابطة حقوق الإنسان الرائدة في عام 1986 وعمل مديرا لها من 1992 إلى أن أطلق عليه قوميون من اليمين المتطرف النار عند مقر الرابطة. ونجا بيردال من محاولة الاغتيال ثم أصبح عضوا في البرلمان من 2007 حتى 2011.

تحدث بيردال إلى "أحوال تركية" بشأن حياته وعمله.

Turkey may have reached the point of no return - Akın Birdal

Turkey may have reached the point of no return - Akın Birdal


Akın Birdal is perhaps Turkey’s most famous human rights campaigner. Co-founder of the groundbreaking Human Rights Association (IHD) in 1986, he served as its head from 1992 until he was shot by far-right nationalists at the association’s headquarters. Birdal survived the assassination attempt and went on to become a member of parliament from 2007 until 2011.

While fighting deceased Kurds, how can Turkey make peace with its “living” Kurds?

While fighting deceased Kurds, how can Turkey make peace with its “living” Kurds?


“My son was killed on 5th of May 2017 in a clash with the Turkish army. I learned of his death from the news. On a social media site called “kanlıkule”, the photos of my son’s disintegrated body were shared. In the photos, a special operation’s soldier stood with his foot on top of my son’s body. My wife and I went to Hakkari to meet with the army commander to request my son’s body 20 days later. The commander said that they threw his body into the river. I said ‘commander, I want my son’s body. If you can’t go to the area, I can go and retrieve his body and the bodies of others.’ He said “Dogs and cats are eating the bodies of those killed last week’. I said ‘commander, there have been wars throughout history. After battles, even the worst enemies allow the others to collect their dead. What you are doing now goes against all laws and humanity. I beg you commander don’t torture us, give us our son’s body. Give us a grave, a stone that we can visit and cry at.”


These are the words of a father whose son, a member of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), was killed in the Çukurca district of Hakkari province, close to the borders of Iran and Iraq. I met him three months ago at the Human Rights Association in Diyarbakır. He is not alone.

"Our work is being criminalized” - human rights leader

"Our work is being criminalized” - human rights leader


The main difference between the present and Turkey’s so-called dirty war in its mainly Kurdish southeast in the 1990s, said the head of the Human Rights Association (IHD) in Turkey’s biggest Kurdish city, is that “there appears to be no rules or principles today … there is no rule or law.”

Thousands were killed as the conflict between the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the state intensified in the 1990s, millions lost their homes as security services torched villages in a scorched earth policy and an unknown number disappeared or were assassinated by pro-government hitmen.

But the conflict began to ease in the early years of the century following the capture of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan in 1999. But after a two-and-a-half year ceasefire broke down in 2015, fighting has flared up once again and the government has carried out a wide-ranging crackdown on all forms of dissent under a state of emergency imposed after the failed July 2016 coup attempt.

زعيم حقوقي: عملنا يتم تجريمه في تركيا

زعيم حقوقي: عملنا يتم تجريمه في تركيا

قال رئيس رابطة حقوق الإنسان في أكبر مدينة كردية في تركيا إن الاختلاف الرئيسي بين حاضر تركيا وما يطلق عليه الحرب القذرة في جنوب شرق البلاد ذي الأغلبية الكردية هو أنه "يبدو أنه لا توجد لوائح أو مبادئ اليوم ... ولا يوجد حكم أو قانون."

وقتل الآلاف في الصراع بين حزب العمال الكردستاني والهجوم الكثيف الذي شنته الدولة في عقد التسعينات من القرن الماضي، وفقد الملايين منازلهم حيث أحرقت دوائر الأمن القرى وذلك في إطار انتهاج سياسة الأرض المحروقة، واختفى عدد غير معلوم أو اغتيل على أيدي قتلة مأجورين موالين للحكومة.