Turkey’s Human Rights Association (IHD) announced the report titled Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia Regions Report on Violations of the Right to Life Due to Armored Vehicle Collisions Between 2008-2018.

IHD Amed (Diyarbakır) Chapter made an announcement on the report and said, “The ongoing war and low intensity conflict of 35 years in the Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia have caused a severe and difficult to repair societal damage. According to unofficial records, over 50.000 people have lost their lives in this conflict. Severe human rights violations have occurred due to the violent atmosphere and increased systematically.”

The report pointed out that rights violations have occurred in many categories, one of them being violations of the right to life due to the use of military and police armored vehicles.

The report cites at least 63 armored vehicle collisions in the last decade: “As a result of 63 cases, 36 people, including 16 children and 6 women, have lost their lives,” said the IHD.

IHD said 85 citizens were injured in these incidents and continued: “Others have been forced to continue their lives with physical disabilities.”

The deaths and injuries have affected children and elderly adults the worst, according to the report, and the suitability of the armored vehicles for urban traffic was called into question.

IHD also stressed the policies of impunity regarding rights violations by armored vehicles: “There have been little to no sentencing in investigations and lawsuits against the perpetrators in these incidents, and as such the legal processes have manifested impunity. This emboldens the perpetrators of such incidents, and gives them trust in the system that they won’t face legal repercussions. Incidents spread this way, and this results in armored vehicle operators taking on an attitude of irregularity and arbitrariness in urban traffic.”

“The policies of impunity negatively affect not just the victims but all sections of society, and democracy itself,” said the IHD and concluded with: “As human rights defenders who believe the right to life is sacred and express this belief at every chance we get, we will continue to work on reporting and identification of any and all instances of threats to the right to life, to inform the public and to defend and develop respect for the right to life.”