The Human Rights Association (IHD) Amed Branch Committee on Combating Torture and Ill-Treatment published the 2010-2019 Report on Torture and Ill-Treatment to the public in the association building.

IHD Amed Branch President Abdullah Zeytun and branch executives attended the meeting. The report was read by commission members Ezgi Sılademir and Yakup Güven.

The place for torture: Prisons

The report underlined that the highest number of applications received in the last 10 years related to the years 2017 and 2018, with prisons (47 percent) as the first of the places where torture and ill-treatment were experienced the most. In addition, according to the ten-year data, public officials who use physical violence the most and most widely were announced as enforcement officers (45 percent), police (39 percent), gendarmerie (10 percent) and village guards (1 percent).

The report also stated that “the application to our branch has relatively decreased because of the allegations that state and government officials work through negotiation and dialogue on the Kurdish issue and other issues and used a peaceful language and style.”

Torture by forces of the State increased

Among the findings in the report was that about the use of excessive force by law enforcement officers in all cities from Edirne to Kars and from Mersin to Bartın.

"The total number of applicants who referred to our association by declaring that they had been subjected to physical violence from public officials, especially law enforcement officers between 2010 and 2019, was 690.

97 of the applicants were women and 592 men. Among all the application categories submitted to our association within the last 10 years, the rate of applications based on torture and ill-treatment, i.e. physical violence, is 19.5 percent.”

Other findings were related to applications by women.

“The years in which female applicants applied the most: 2019 with 30 applications and 2018 with 18 applications.

In 2017, applications for torture and ill-treatment concentrated in prisons. It is observed that there is a continuous increase in these applications especially between 2010 and 2014 and this reached the highest figures in 2017 and 2018.

Out of 689 applicants, 168 stated that they were subjected to assault / brutal beatings / physical violence by law enforcement officers in the middle of the street.

The number of applications filed for alleged torture and ill-treatment while in custody reached the highest figures in 2019.

The year in which the most applications were received by our association as to ill-treatment by police offices, was 2019.

In the years when conflicts increased in rural areas, there was a relative increase in the applications made to our association with the claim that torture and ill-treatment was carried out by the gendarmerie.”