The Human Rights Association (IHD) Van (Wan) Branch released its 2025 report on cases of “coercive interrogations, intimidation, and forced recruitment.”
Lawyer Kemal Tibelek, a member of the IHD Van Branch Legal Commission, said that within the first ten months of 2025, nine people applied to the association on the grounds of “recruitment, pressure, and threats.” He said: “As noted in previous reports, such practices have become state policy since the state of emergency declared after the failed coup attempt of July 15, 2016. These actions constitute multiple crimes under the Turkish Penal Code, including threat, insult, torture, deprivation of liberty, and abuse of office. It is evident from the applications and reports reflected in the media that human rights violations in this area have increased, that complaints are not effectively investigated, and that the perpetrators remain unpunished. The general policy of impunity in Turkey is also the prevailing approach in such cases.”
Lawyer Kemal Tibelek pointed out that criminal complaints often end in non-prosecution decisions without sufficient investigation or inquiry. Tibelek said: “Applications made to the IHD and cases reported in the media reflect only a small portion of such incidents. Many individuals are unable to share what they have experienced even with their families, concealing it in the belief that this will ensure their safety. Criminal complaints filed with the prosecutor’s offices often result in non-prosecution decisions on the grounds that the perpetrators cannot be identified, without any serious investigation or examination. Moreover, no protective measures are taken to ensure the safety of the individuals involved. For these reasons, there are people who, fearing for their safety, refrain from seeking legal remedies and are forced to leave Turkey to live in another country.”
Tibelek explained that all complaints submitted to the association are reported to the Ministry of Interior, the Law Enforcement Oversight Commission, and the Human Rights Investigation Commission of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM). However, he said that no effective investigations have yet been conducted: “Our branch filed applications with the Law Enforcement Oversight Commission for all nine cases received, but none were accepted, and no investigations have been launched against the suspected law enforcement officers. According to data from the IHD Documentation Unit, between 2022 and 2024, a total of 87 applications related to coercive recruitment and abduction were filed with the IHD headquarters and its branches.”
Kemal Tibelek stated that within the first ten months of this year alone, nine people in Wan had applied to the IHD on the grounds of coercive recruitment attempts. Tibelek explained: “When we examine the complaints, we see that individuals who introduce themselves as police officers try to approach the applicants under the pretext of ‘having a chat, drinking tea, or becoming friends.’ They tell applicants that they could gain financial benefits from this relationship, and when the applicants refuse, they are threatened with harm to their families, jobs, health, and private lives, or intimidated with the possibility of detention or arrest. In detention centers, detainees are taken to interview rooms at certain intervals before the official interrogation process and without the presence of their lawyers, and they are forced to give informal statements. Those in custody are threatened with arrest or told that even if they are released, they will be constantly followed and never left in peace. Sometimes these arbitrary practices result in abduction, torture, and ill-treatment. Individuals are forced into cars by people they do not know, blindfolded, beaten for days, and then released in remote areas.”