460 people appealed to the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TIHV) in the first 10 months of 2011 complaining that they had been exposed to torture and ill treatment. Most of the applications were made from Istanbul and Diyarbakýr while torture particularly increased following the protests staged against KCK operations and against PM Erdoðan in Hopa district of Artvin in the process of last elections on June 12.

Apart from 130 people applying from Istanbul and 110 from Diyarbakýr, the number of applicants is also high in Ankara, Ýzmir and Adana. While the high rate astonishes human rights defenders, it drew attention that applications were mostly made by demonstrators who joined protest demonstrations at universities and in Hopa where PM Erdoðan was protested before the AKP election meeting.

Applications by victims were in general made with complaints of being subjected to insult, corporal punishment, contempt, threatening with death, chemical substance, threats against their relatives, forcing to wait in the cold, undressing and isolation in cell.

One more attention grabbing rate is of the detentions made at press releases that were issued to condemn the tough attitude of police during the demonstrations staged in Hopa where police violently attacked demonstrators and killed a fifty four years old teacher Metin Lokumcu who died after suffering a struck.