Turkey: The Manisa Statements (part 1)

[ozgurluk at xs4all.nl]

Subject: Turkey: The Manisa Statements (part 1)
From: Press Agency Ozgurluk <ozgurluk at xs4all.nl>

Hello,

This is an update on the scandalous trial against a few youngsters fom
Manisa, Turkey.  For more background on this case in which childeren
were brutality tortured and were sentenced to a total of 76 years can
be found at the following URL: 
http://www.xs4all.nl/~ozgurluk/pub/manisa.html We hereby publish the
translated statements of the youngsters involved.

"In the very same year that Turkey declared that the torture of
children was not to be tolerated, five school students in Manisa
reported that during their detention police blindfolded them, stripped
them naked, hosed them with cold water and subjected them to electric
shocks -- including to their genitalia.

        The boys were allegedly raped with truncheons, while the girls
were also threatened with rape and forced gynaecological examinations.
These students had been charged with membership in or connections with
an illegal political organization.  None of them was older than 16
years of age. How can a government pledged to uphold the human rights
of its chilären allow state agents to commit such shocking violations?

        One 14-year-old boy gave the following account of his ordeal:
I had to undress...They asked questions that were nothing to do with
me; when I said I did not know, they twisted my testicles...Four of
them held me by the hands and arms and gave electric shocks to my
right thumb, to my sexual organs, to my arms and to my
stomach...Afterwards I had no feeling in my right foot and sexual
organ.  This and other torture testimonies are supported by medical
reports from the hospitals where the students were treated during
their detention".

Opinion piece by Pierre Sane, Secretary General, Amnesty International
AI INDEX: EUR 44/145/96

THE MANISA TESTIMONIES (Part 1)

MAHIR GOKTAS 

I was arrested in my village on December 27, 1995, between midnight
and 1 a.m.  by the Anti-Terror department from Manisa. First they took
me to the police station in Kinik. Later I was pushed into a white
Mazda. There were 5 plainclothes policemen in the car. My eyes were
blindfolded. They held a gun to my temple, the finger at the trigger,
and they threatened to kill me. They became abusive and hit me on my
ribs. We reached Manisa where I was brought to the police station. We
went through a long corridor. My eyes were still blindfolded. Suddenly
5 or 6 people jumped on me. They started to kick me and they beat me
up with their truncheons. When I was kicked in my stomach, I lost
conscience. When I became conscious again, I found myself in a
cell. Later two people entered the cell and I was abruptly taken
away. I was brought into a room where they started to question me. I
did not answer. When I said "I have nothing to tell", they hit me on
my head with their fists and truncheons. They wanted me to take off my
clothes, but I refused. They violently took away my clothes. I was put
on a wet linen blanket. They started to squeeze my testicles and they
threatened to take away my manhood. They said they were going to poor
acid over me and they were going to abuse me sexually. I was treated
with electroshocks for 2 hours and they kept squeezing my
testicles. They laid me on the floor and they started to trample on my
back. After they tortured me, they put me under cold water for 1.5
hour. In the night they threw me into a cell. I almost froze to
death. I could hardly breath. I could hear people cry, fascist hymns
were played constantly. They came for a second time. I was put under a
cold shower again after which they brought me to the interrogation
room. My eyes were blindfolded. After they put me on a wet blanket,
they grasped me by my feet, my arms and my hair. They poured water
into my ears. My ears rumbled. They told me how they killed Turan
Kilic and Baki Erdogan by torture and said that they were from the
contra-guerrilla. They put electroshocks to my belly, my genitals and
my feet. I was put under cold water again. Because I'm left-handed,
they hit me on my left arm. Without any reason I was brought to
Aliaga. There I was tortured and put under cold water too. Again I
received electroshocks and they squeezed my testicles. On the way to
Manisa I was handcuffed and put in the trunk of the car. I could not
breath anymore. They stopped the car on a bridge and they held me on
my feet, head down. The water was pitch black. I was unconscious when
they pulled me up again. When I opened my eyes again, I was in a
cell. The torturers, who called themselves Suleyman, Toprak, Mehmet,
Kibar and Hoca, threatened us on our way to the doctor: "If you show
your wounds to the doctor, we'll kill you."  During the 11 days I
stayed there I was tortured for 8 days, 3 to 4 times a day.  When I
was brought to prison, I could not hear with my right ear anymore. I
had difficulties with urinating and breathing.


YELIZ KILIC

I was arrested on February 8, 1995, on a Thursday, in Soma, together
with a friend. We were brought to the police station. They started to
ask my name. When I did not answer, they started to torture me. During
the electroshocks they asked me "Are you related to Turan
Kilic?". Because I did not answer any question, me and my friends were
brought to the police station in Manisa. We were blindfolded and
locked into separate cells. After two hours they took us to the
interrogation room. When I answered their questions with "No" and "I
don't know", they said: "You did not talk in Soma, but we will make
you talk here, you whore, you bitch." Then they said: "Take off your
clothes!" I said: "No, I will not take off my clothes." They asked me
three times. Then they started to take off my clothes with
violence. After they had undressed me, they called another person into
the room. Then they summoned this person: "Rape her!" I resisted.
They were with four people. They took my hands and feet. That's how
they raped me. I yelled at them, saying they were without honour. They
said: "You're the one without honour. You're under us. We're finished
with you." That's how they showed their indignity. Because I yelled,
they tied up my mouth and they tried to strangle me, threatening:
"We'll kill you." I fainted. When I recovered, I was hosed with
water. At the end they dressed me and I was locked up in a cell.  In
the cell the policemen asked if I wanted to eat something. I replied:
"I will not eat." When they took me to the interrogation room again,
my hatred was even bigger. My stand was more upright then before. I
constantly said: "I don't know." They took off my clothes and gave me
electroshocks. When I shouted the slogan "Human dignity will defeat
torture!", they said: "Shut up, you bitch."  They tied up my arms with
something soft and they attached a strap to it. They hung me on the
"Palestinian hook". When they took me off after 15 minutes, I could
not move anymore. They asked "Can you move your arms and legs?" When I
couldn't, they moved my arms and legs. Then they hosed me again and
they threw me into the cell. They asked whether I was freezing and
they brought a blanket.  I did not accept the blanket from the
torturers. Theqy covered me with this blanket when they electrocuted
me. They did not give me water when I asked for it. "If you talk, we
will save you, we will not torture you anymore", the ignominious ones
said.

In the cell I could hear my friends scream when they received the
electroshocks.  During the interrogation they said "Why are you not
talking? You hate us because we killed your brother Turan." I did not
answer them.

They gave electroshocks to my fingers, my private parts, my mouth and
my belly.  I was taken for interrogation and torture six times in this
manner. I could not distinguish night from day anymore. The last times
they used water again. They poured water into my ears and said they
were going to make me deaf. When they hung me up for the second time,
they used some kind of ointment so there would not be any marks. Then
they brought me to the Manisa state hospital. When the doctor saw me,
he asked: "What have they done to you?" I told him everything.

On the way back to the police station they asked me: "Why did you tell
the doctor? We will kill you this time. Why did you tell him? You will
take back your words." I told them I would not take back my
words. After the visit to the doctor they went mad. They poured
several buckets with hot water over my body.  Then cold water. They
tried to push my head into the toilet, grabbing me by my hair. When
they did this, they threatened "We will strangle you, we will kill
you."

I know three of these torturers. One of them is small and has a
moustache. The second one was a little bit fat and he had a plump
nose. The long one was called "Teacher". The torture was led by
him. He gave the orders for the electroshocks and the rape. When they
took us from Soma, he was present too. He was in civilian clothes
then, dressed rather poorly. There was also an older person, around 50
years old. His eyes were swollen. This showed he was an alcoholic. He
talked like a peasant. And there was also another man, around 40 years
old, dark, bearded, of medium height. He talked with the tongue of the
Black Sea coast.

It is nice to be able to resist the torture by the enemy for six
days. I witnessed their reaction. They were like mad dogs. When I
resisted, I thought of all my comrades. My hate became even bigger.


MUNIRE APAYDIN

I was arrested by the Anti-Terror Department of Manisa on December 26,
1995, when I was at school. During the eleven days I was in custody, I
was put under psychological and physical pressure. I was threatened
right from the beginning.  When I yelled at them and said they had no
right to take me with them, one of the torturers said: "We will talk
about that when we arrive, you'll see whether we have the right or
not. "

The torture, which started with beatings when we entered the police
station, lasted for eleven days. During the stay there I noticed they
were at lot of other people who were arrested. We could hear the
screams when they were tortured. It was their intention to let us hear
these screams so we would become frightened. The torturers were
helpless and cowardly. When my blindfold dropped, they
panicked. During the torture they asked me if I was ashamed and they
said I was going to loose my dignity. I replied that they were cowards
and it was not I who was undignified. They replied: "Ah, that's
it. You must have read the Kurtulus to much."

When we were brought to hospital, they threatened the doctors. We were
examined but they did not report our wounds. When our relatives came
to visit us, they threatened us not to tell them anything about our
situation.

They offered me collaboration. If I would accept, they promised, I
would be released. They would support me financially and they would
arrange my study.  They said: "The path you're going is wrong. Even if
you're going to be released now, sooner or later you'll be back."


AYSE MINE BALKANLI

That morning I went to school as usual. Everything was normal. But
around 11 a.m. there was a tense atmosphere in school. Two friends of
mine, who came from the deputy directors office, said there were four
rather conspicuous men inside.  Shortly after I was summoned to the
office. My friend Sema was already inside.  We were arrested. When I
got into the car with Sema I told them they had no right to take us
with them, that there was no reason to arrest us. The policemen tried
to appear friendly. But this changed when we arrived at the police
station. When I took my blindfold off, I was pulled at my hair by the
policeman who appeared friendly just one moment before and I was
pushed against the sign of the Anti-Terror Department. Then he said:
"Apparently you don't know where you are. If you don't, have a good
look." Then he blindfolded me again.

Insulted and beaten, I was locked up in a cell. The first
interrogation was done by the policemen who later acted liked the
"good cop". When I was put in the cell the first time, I knew Sema was
in the cell next door.

(...) When I refused to answer the questions in the interrogation room
the first evening, they started to pull at my clothes. Then they
started to talk rubbish.  I did not listen. When they finished their
drivel, they noticed my attitude had not changed and I was thrown into
the cell again. They said I was inviting my end because of my attitude
and they threatened to keep me there, nobody was able to save me, not
even the state president.

>From the moment we entered the police station we were subjected to
fascist hymns. This music still reverberates in my ears. I could hear
my friends scream in my cell, this intensified my hate even
more. Besides my own pain, I also felt the pain of my tortured
friends. (...)


SEMA TASAR

My friend Mine and I were taken from school by four policemen. On our
way we tried to find out what was going on and we told the policemen
that they were going to be held responsible. I was locked up in a
small cell, blindfolded.

Hours later I was brought into the torture room. They hit me in my
face, they threatened to rape me and said that even the state
president was able to help me. The same evening they became even more
brutal during the second interrogation. I said: "If something happens
to me, you'll pay for it." They took off my clothes and tore them
up. I tried to resist when they were beating me up. With anger I told
them they had no honour. When I succeeded to take off my blindfold, I
saw two policemen run away, they did not want to be recognised.  The
others blindfolded me again and they hit me. They put me on a wet
blanket, hosed me with cold water and then they gave me
electroshocks. They grabbed me at my arms and legs and threatened to
hurt me. (...)

I was in this police station for eleven days. During that period a lot
of people were brought into this station. We heard them scream.

-- 
Press-Agency Ozgurluk: http://www.xs4all.nl/~ozgurluk
Turkey Contra-Guerrilla-State: http://www.xs4all.nl/~ozgurluk/contrind/
Searchable Database: http://www.xs4all.nl/~ozgurluk/ml.html
KURTULUS HAFTALIK SIYASI GAZETE: http://www.kurtulus.com