HUMAN RIGHTS

The appeal to the Constitutional Court regarding Sevan Nişanyan’s cases for opposition to the Code of Protection of Cultural and Natural Properties for which he received long term prison sentences has been rejected. The next legal step is the ECHR.

HDP has tabled a parliamentary motion for the recognition of the Halabja Massacre as the Kurdish Genocide, and the declaration of March 16 as Genocide Commemoration Day.

Aybüke Ekici, General Secretary of the International Refugee Rights Association, has expressed concern over allegations that some Ozbek refugees may have been sent from Suruç to areas under the control of ISIS. Ekici added that they had received reports that ISIS was executing refugees that refused to join them.

The ‘Internal Security Package’ to be discussed in Parliament next week has once again opened the debate on the boundaries of authority to be transferred to law enforcement. Departing from the security package that has become the focus of criticism, we have examined what the new regulations bring, the path followed by such regulations aiming to protect the ‘continuity of the State’ and the background of the criticized stance of the police force.

The period of limitation is about to end for many lawsuits regarding enforced disappearances and unsolved murders. If a step is not taken, these files will be closed. The Human Rights Association and the Saturday Mothers have launched a new campaign against the threat imposed by the statute of limitations.

Arrested and then released last month in Diyarbakır, Dutch journalist Frederike Geerdink has been charged with ‘propaganda for a terrorist organisation’ and faces a sentence from 1 to 5 years if found guilty.

According to the report released by the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 2014 has been the bloodiest year in the civil war in Syria that began in March 2011. According to the report, 76,021 people lost their lives in Syria in 2014.

Mehmet Uluışık’s story clearly disproves the official claim that ‘archives in Turkey are open to everyone’. According to Uluışık, who has been banned from entering Turkey because of his research on the Armenian and Circassian Genocides in archives, even if this ban were to be lifted, he still would not be able to carry out research since a letter from MİT, the National Intelligence Organization, prevents his entry into archives.

Human rights organizations have taken the decision to act in cooperation to establish a ‘Foundation for the Investigation of Mass Graves’ under the supervision of the Human Rights Association (İHD). The work to discover mass graves will be carried out according to periods, such as the 1915 Armenian Genocide, Kurdish rebellions after 1925, and the Kurdish War.

The Hrant Dink murder is seen by the ruling party as a weapon that can be used against the Gülen movement. This is an ugly plan in which one of the country’s greatest tests of justice is being instrumentalized.