As part of Human Rights Week, marked between December 10 and 17, human rights defenders and democratic mass organizations in Diyarbakir (Amed) are organizing a series of actions and events across the city. Throughout the week, local institutions will draw attention to ongoing violations through panels, forums, press statements, workshops, and commemorative events.
Institutions in Diyarbakir also aim to make rights violations more visible and to raise public awareness by carrying out broad-based and widely attended activities throughout Human Rights Week.
Ercan Yilmaz, Chair of the Human Rights Association (IHD) Amed Branch, spoke to the ANF about the worsening human rights situation in Turkey, saying that violations are steadily increasing. He added that the continued failure to resolve the Kurdish issue has played a central role in deepening the country’s human rights crisis.
Rights violations have become a structural problem
Ercan Yilmaz said that human rights violations in Turkey have become a structural problem and added: “For many years, we have been voicing our demands for the advancement of human rights, the end of ongoing violations, and confrontation with the past, both in Kurdistan and in many cities across Turkey. In Diyarbakir (Amed), sixty-three institutions issued a joint statement in front of the former Saraykapi Prison as part of Human Rights Week. The decision to make this statement at that location was deliberate; we know that the prison was used by dark structures in the past. Many case files and witness testimonies indicate that this site was used for a period as an execution and torture center by the Gendarmerie Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism Organization (JITEM).
For this reason, we wanted to underline the need to renew collective memory and to confront the past at this very place. Diyarbakir is one of the cities with a deeply rooted memory in this regard.”
There is no human rights culture in Turkey
Yilmaz said that Turkey has lacked a culture of human rights for many years, noting that the concept of human rights is treated by the state as synonymous with terrorism. Yilmaz continued: “Anyone who speaks, thinks, writes, or produces work on human rights is punished. I want to stress that one of the most fundamental reasons for this is the unresolved Kurdish issue. Since the founding of the Republic, the state has not operated on the basis of a human rights, centered approach. Most of the constitutions that have been drafted contain many provisions that are monist in nature and disregard differences. For this reason, we believe that the most significant step that can be taken toward resolving the human rights issue in Turkey is the democratic resolution of the Kurdish issue.”
Freedom of expression and the press is being ignored
Ercan Yilmaz said that violations of freedom of expression are increasing with each passing day, adding that both the judiciary and law enforcement have been turned into mechanisms of pressure. Yilmaz said: “People are subjected to harassment by both the judiciary and law enforcement simply for expressing their thoughts. These acts of harassment number in the thousands.
When we look at journalists currently being held in prisons, we see that press freedom is being completely disregarded. It is clear that freedom of the press is being violated in a very intense manner. We also witness harsh interventions by the police and law enforcement forces against meetings and demonstrations. This situation shows us that violence has continued to escalate over the years.”