The UK barrister Michael Polak answers Mr Owen Bowcott’s questions: Why can not the victims get justice within Turkey and why should the UK government consider the submission made by the Turkey Human Rights Accountability Project?
Torture and Impunity
Constitutional Court judgment exposes the police torture against Turkish lawyer Gürsu Avcı
The Turkish Constitutional Court established that Turkish lawyer Gürsu Avcı was tortured in a police station where he went to provide legal counsel with three suspects. (Gürsu Avcı, B. No: 2017/20159, 13/4/2021) On 19.07.2016, Mr Avcı, who was assigned by… Read More ›
TALI/TUHRAP makes its first submission to UK Foreign Office
Turkey Human Rights Accountability Projects makes its first submission to UK Foreign Office to have notable abusers of human rights in Turkey placed on the United Kingdom’s sanction list.
Sanliurfa / Halfeti Torture Case: On the second anniversary impunity continues
18 May 2021 marks the second anniversary of the torture incident which took place in Sanliurfa province of Turkey between 18 May 2019 and 28 May 2019, and victimized some fifty individuals.
Within the scope of Turkey Human Rights Accountability Project, the Arrested Lawyers Initiative summarily translated the report of Human Rights Center of Sanliurfa Bar Association to English. We also worked with renowned Italian artist Gianluca Costantini who illustrated the accounts of the victims.
Turkish Constitutional Court upholds the impunity provisions introduced with emergency decrees
Impunity provisions enacted with Decree Law nos. 667, 668, 696 During the state of emergency rule between 2016 and 2018, the Turkish Government enacted thirty-two emergency decrees which were later approved by the Turkish Parliament and have become ordinary… Read More ›
Mass Arrests of Lawyers Continues in Turkey
On 12 March 2020, an arrest warrant targeting thirteen lawyers was issued and several lawyers have been taken into custody in Turkey’s southeastern provinces of Diyarbakır and Urfa as part of an Urfa-based investigation. Most of the targeted lawyers are those who documented torture and ill-treatment incident took place in May of 2019 in Halfeti district of Sanliurfa province.