Report on State of Emergency in its 3rd Year: We cannot breathe anymore

13 Temmuz 2020

BİANET

July 18 marks the second year since the State of Emergency was lifted after being extended for seven times since July 20, 2016. On this occasion, the recent data and personal accounts of the discharged have been documented in a report.

Click to read the article in Turkish
Justice for Victims Platform and Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Kocaeli MP Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu have prepared a 1,500-page report on the personal accounts and experiences of people who were discharged from public service by Statutory Decrees after the July 15 coup attempt in 2016.
Covering the period from July 20, 2019 to September 9, 2019, the report is based on the accounts and experiences of 3,104 people from all 81 provinces of Turkey and 201 people from 33 countries of the world.

‘7,508 academic discharged in State of Emergency’

The report was shared with the public in a press conference in Kadıköy, İstanbul today (July 13). While HDP MP Gergerlioğlu and Assoc. Prof. Bayram Erzurumluoğlu from the platform addressed the reporters, the report shares the following figures and statistics about the discharges:

• 89.5 percent of the State of Emergency/ Statutory Decree victims and 93.6 percent of the relatives of the victims have defined themselves as Muslim. 84.5 percent of the victims and 86.5 percent of the relatives of the victims have defined themselves as Sunni. When it is compared to the figures of last year, there has been a decrease of a number of points in the rates of allegiance to “Islam” and “Sunni” sect. Within this context, an increase has been observed in the rate of those who define themselves as Atheist, Deist, Humanist, Agnostic or not a believer of any sect of Islam.
• It is estimated that the number of discharged academics is 7,508 (when 3,041 academics who lost their jobs in the private sector due to closed universities are added to this calculation, the number of academics left jobless reaches 10,549); the number of discharged regular soldiers is 17,164; the number of military students who have been suspended from their deserved ranks either because their schools were closed or their graduation was declared null and void is around 35,000.
• The Ministry of Interior has discharged 43,648 personnel, including 35,000 police officers and 4,700 gendarmerie, and suspended 5,679 people from duty. 7,755 people have been discharged from the Ministry of Health.

Personal experiences cited in the report

• I was discharged from public service by a Statutory Decree without an administrative investigation launched against me.
• The administrative process was operated a bit differently for judges and prosecutors. First, I was suspended from duty at around 2 a.m. on July 16, 2016 in the aftermath of July 15. With this suspension, a warrant was also issued for my detention. The administrative investigation began directly after a decision of discharge. That decision was taken in the middle of the night. The procedures of defense vs. were not operated. The ground for the penal investigation was the suspension from duty and the start of discharge process. Similarly, the penal investigation launched against me was the ground for the administrative investigation. So, a paradox… I was arrested after the State of Emergency was declared. I objected to the decision of the Supreme Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) from prison. But the processes of notification were all undue.
• After I had been suspended from duty without an administrative or judicial investigation, I was discharged by the Statutory Decree no. 686 one week later. I was on duty when the heinous July 15 coup attempt happened and I did my share by taking a clear stance against the coup. However, I was discharged with no questions asked. Six months after I had been discharged, I learnt the reason for my discharge while deposing at the prosecutor’s office. An informant mentioned my name, referring back to the year 2011, and said, “That person was with me, too.” That was apparently why I was discharged. They did not tell me who the informant was. So, I did not know why that kind of a slander was cast on me. I was released after my deposition. It has been almost two years since my deposition, but neither a court proceeding has started, nor a decision of non-prosecution has been given. So, no one has reached me about this so far. There is nothing about me apart from this allegation. I applied to the State of Emergency Commission for reinstatement, but it has born no results yet.
• We cannot breathe anymore.
• I sometimes pass out, but I have never gone to a hospital since I do not have social security.
• What has caused us the biggest sorrow was this label of traitor.
• A physical and mental collapse has started for all of us.

‘It has turned into a social massacre’

Based on all these figures and statistics as well as personal accounts and first-hand experiences of discharged people, the conclusion part of the report has noted that “the State of Emergency process has gone well beyond the boundaries of acceptability and turned into a not-yet-named ‘civilian death’ or, more precisely, a ‘social massacre’ through the oppression and, even, destruction of the physical and mental beings of over 1.5 million citizens of the Republic of Turkey.” (EMK/SD)