İbrahim Halil Baran, chairman of the Partiya Kurdistani (PAKURD), on Monday refuted Human Rights Day remarks made by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan that no massacres, oppression or torture had taken place in Turkish history, saying he was tortured during the 13 days he was in detention.
“Tayyip Erdoğan said, ‘There is no torture in Turkey.’ I am declaring it here: I was tortured for 13 days. There is systematic torture in Turkey. The lower two floors of the Urfa [province] counterterrorism headquarters is a torture center. I can identify the police who tortured me,” Baran tweeted.
“Ercüment Türkmek, the police chief, personally runs the torture. Doctors write reports without seeing detainees; prosecutors reject petitions, citing a lack of grounds for legal action; and judges refuse to register torture accusations, saying ‘Do not tell me about the lawlessness of the police,” added Baran.
Baran, who was detained on Jan. 11 and arrested on Jan. 23 for disseminating the propaganda of a terrorist organization and insulting President Erdoğan, was released on April 11 under due process.
In his Human Rights Day message issued on Saturday, Erdoğan said Turkey would keep supporting all oppressed people around the world.
“Respect for human rights based on the principles of equality and non-discrimination of individuals before the law is the irreplaceable nature of the Republic of Turkey,” he added.
Erdoğan’s message came amid non-stop oppression against his opponents including Kurds and people affiliated with the faith-based Gülen movement.
According to a report released by the Human Rights Association (İHD) and the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV) on Saturday, 2,278 people were tortured and 11 abducted in Turkey during the first 11 months of 2017.
Security forces killed 36 people and wounded 12 in extrajudicial killings and by firing arbitrarily into a crowd on the pretext that they did not obey an order to stop during the January to November period.
A total of 695 people including 183 soldiers, 460 militants and 52 civilians were killed and 310 injured during clashes in Turkey.
At least 322 women and 68 children died as a result of domestic violence in the country in 2017.
As of Nov. 1, there were 230,735 people in Turkish prisons, including 1,037 with health problems. The prison population numbered 178,089 in 2015 and 154,179 in 2014.