About two weeks, a group of military extremists/rebels staged a coup d’etat against the Turkish government. It failed, and all of the living rebels were captured and imprisoned. The coup was an attempt by factions within the Turkish Armed Forces to overthrow the current democracy and elected officials holding office. Honestly, even if they had succeeded, good luck convincing the rest of the free world to leave you alone after you overthrow a democracy. Further proof the radicalism of these rebels can be found in country-wide protests and shows of support for both the capture of said rebels as well as to show support to the current nation’s leadership.
Regardless of all of this, I’m still pretty sure that the United Nations doesn’t allow for prisoners to be tortured and prison-raped by their captors. Which is apparently exactly what is happening to the capture members of the failed coup attempt.
Via CNN:
“Captured military officers raped by police, hundreds of soldiers beaten, some detainees denied food and water and access to lawyers for days. These are the grim conditions that many of the thousands who were arrested in Turkey face in the aftermath of a recent failed coup, witnesses tell Amnesty International.
Detainees awaiting trial have been beaten and tortured in official and unofficial holding centers in Istanbul and Ankara since the July 15 coup attempt by parts of Turkey’s military, the human rights group alleged this week, citing interviews with detainees’ lawyers, doctors and a person who was on duty at one of the centers in Ankara.”
Look, I’ll admit that I’m not an expert in Turkish policies, foreign or domestic. But I am pretty sure you can’t do that. The question I’m sure you are all asking is just how bad are things (I know this because I asked the same question)? Well, according to the reports referred to above, pretty horrible.
“• Many detainees are being kept in informal holding centers, such as a sports hall at the Ankara police headquarters and some riding club stables in the city.
• Detainees say they saw police officers raping senior military officers with batons or fingers, according to two lawyers in Ankara.
• A person who’d been on duty at the Ankara police headquarters claimed to have seen a severely beaten detainee who lost consciousness with large swelling on his head. Police allegedly denied that detainee medical treatment. “Let him die. We will say he came to us dead,” the witness quoted a police doctor as saying.
• Up to 800 male soldiers were being held in the Ankara police headquarters sports hall, a source there said, and at least 300 showed signs of having been beaten, with bruises, cuts or broken bones, the source said. About 40 could not walk, and a woman detained separately from men had bruising on her face and torso, the source said.
• Detainees were brought before prosecutors for interrogation with their shirts covered in blood, lawyers said.”
Jesus Christ. This is like some Midnight Express shit. Now I know why that old joke “You ever been in a Turkish prison?” exists. But really, what was to be expected? These guys tried to overthrow the government in a country that is the setting for a movie about a prisoner being horribly abused while in their prison system (seriously, bros, you really should watch Midnight Express if you never have). The government isn’t going to treat these guys properly, no matter how fucked it is what they’re doing. It’s like if someone kept stealing money from your house and you finally caught him. You know that you’re not supposed to throw him down the stairs before calling the police, but sometimes your emotions get the best of you. I don’t condone it or agree with it, but I can’t sit here and say that I don’t kind of see where they’re coming from.