In response to Deputy PM Beşir Atalay who has recently claimed that only two cases of torture and ill-treatment were reported in the past three years, General Secretary of Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TIHV), Metin Bakkalcı, said the Foundation had received a total of 444 torture complaints in the last two years.

According to Bakkalcı, 553 torture complaints were filed in 2012, and 220 of these complaints were made by people who were subject to torture in the same year. The number of torture complaints in 2011 was 519 -added Bakkalcı- and noted that 224 of these people complaint about torture they sufffered in 2011.

So we received a total of 444 torture complaints in the last two years, said Bakkalcı and noted that these figures consisted of a small part of the cases of torture across the country.

Bakkalcı noted that the complaints were filed on the basis of universal definitions of torture or ill-treatment which refer to any kind of physical or psychological act against security in custody.

"Although some positive steps were taken to prevent torture in Turkey between 2000 and 2005, the situation changed back as of 2006", said Bakkalcı and reminded of the detention and torture of 563 people, included 203 children, in Diyarbakır in March 2006.

TIHV General Secretary stated that some amendments in the Turkish Anti-Terror Act in 2006 paved the way for severe consequences for children in particular.

Bakkalcı added that the amendment in the law of police powers in 2007 has also given way to arbitrary practices and human rights abuses across the country.

Reminding of a torture case in İzmir where a women was assaulted by a group of police officers at police headquarters in July 2011, Bakkalcı said that victims of torture and ill-treatment in Turkey are also facing challenges while prosecuting a suit against perpetrators. Bakkalcı noted that the tortured woman had been sentenced to six years in prison as a result of the complaint police officers filed against her.

Bakkalcı claimed that the chief officer of Istanbul's anti-terror unit had previously been convicted of torture, and that the case against the chief officer had later been dropped due to prescription.