Torture Remains Main Obstacle For EU
An Aliaga court in Turkey continued the trial of the 68 people detained at the funeral ceremony of Nevzat Ciftci who died at the Ankara Ulucanlar Prison in 1999. Events had broken out at the funeral ceremony of Ciftci at the Helvaci village.
An unrefined videocassette, displaying the incidents at the funeral ceremony, was shown during the trial. The person who caught the images on camera was recorded at the court as the valuator.
After watching the video images, the lawyers of the detainees stated they would submit a written plea to the court.
There was a lot of tension at the hearing. "It is natural for the people, who lost their friend or brother, to react against these not-so pleasant images," said psychologist Alp Ayan, speaking at the trial.
"Not the torturers, but the ones who oppose it, are standing trial"
Prof. Veli Lok, Prof. Dr. Inge Kempf Genefke, the founder and honorary head of the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT), and Asa Nihlen, IRCT official in charge of the Middle East and Africa, were present at the trial as observers.
"Instead of punishing the doctors who fight against torture, they should be punishing the torturers, and those who ill-treat others," said Genefke of the IRCT, who was also a Nobel Peace Prize nominee.
"If the torture cases in Turkey were well documented, it would be very difficult for Turkey to became a member of the European Union (EU)," said Genefke.
The next hearing will be on December 20, 2002 at 1:30 p.m.
The history of the case
Journalist Semra Somersan wrote the following in the daily Radikal on October 24, 1999:
"On Thursday, September 30, 1999, doctor Alp Ayan left home to attend a funeral ceremony. He left his job, wife and two children in Izmir and set off to accompany the friends and relatives of Nevzat Ciftci, who was to be buried at the Helvaci village in the Aliaga district of the Aegean province of Izmir.
He did not return in the evening. His wife went back and forth between the window and the telephone, while at the same time; she tried to calm down her children.
Her husband Ayan was kept under custody for 96 hours along with Gunseli Kaya, secretary of the Izmir branch of the Human Rights Foundation, and 12 other people from non-governmental organizations in Izmir. They were accused of being "provocateurs." On Sunday, October 3, at 6:15 a.m. they were arrested by an Aliaga criminal court.
Here is what happened before the tense developments, which would be of great inspiration for young Kafkas, the things that happened till the dawn for nights, the detention of 76 people, and the arrest of 14:
The people who set off for Ciftci's funeral came across a barricade lined up by the paramilitary police, 1-2 kilometers from the Helvaci village, where the funeral ceremony would take place.
The paramilitary police wanted to see identification documents of the attendants and turned them back, saying, because of security reasons; only first-degree relatives of the deceased were allowed to attend the ceremony.
The group that gathered in front of the barricade insisted on seeing an authority who would give permission for their entry. The paramilitary police told the group that the chief authority, Aliaga district paramilitary police commander Lieutenant Ali Atalar, was at the Helvaci village.
A group including Dr. Alp Ayan and lawyer Sevgi Binbir drove off to the village in Ayan's car to find Lieutenant Atalar.
However, the soldiers at the Helvaci village told the group that Lieutenant Atalar had returned to the barricade at the entrance of the village. When the group returned back to the barricade, they were once again unable to find an authority to speak with.
Meanwhile, reinforcement troops were brought in from the Izmir province paramilitary regiment commandership and from Foca. As the group was unable to find an authority to speak with, Dr. Ayan gave a speech explaining why the group was there". (EA/NM)