Following the 7 June elections, in the time period between 17 June- 26 August 2015, 78 civilians have lost their lives. Furthermore, between 4-19 August, there have been 9 assaults directed at HDP offices. In the custody operations that started after the 7 June elections, 1.628 people have been taken into custody and 298 people have been arrested as of 26 August 2015.
Civilian Deaths:
On 17 June 2015, police officer Abbas Usta, from Bursa Police Headquarters, the branch Office of Critical Regions Protection Department, had a dispute with 75-year-old Ayşe Şahin. At the end of this dispute, the police officer took out his pistol and shot down and killed Ayşe Şahin (75) and her daughter Sevda Uysal (42) in a barrage of bullets. Abbas Usta was brought into police headquarters. He used his right to remain silent, and was taken to court and arrested.
On 26 June 2015, Ragıp S., the police officer in charge at the Office of the Critical Regions Protection Department, who lived in the district of Fatih in the city of Adana, was assaulted by family and neighbors of a young girl subjected to sexual harassment. He then took out his service pistol and fired indiscriminately. As a result, Çağatay Erdem lost his life; Bestami Şahin and passerby Raşit Ünsan were injured. Following the incident Ragıp S. was taken into custody.
On 12 July 2015, in the district of Göle in Ardahan, soldiers fired at a family on a picnic. As a result, many were injured and 70-year-old Kamber Morkoç lost his life.
On 20 July 2015, in the district of Suruç in Şanlıurfa, 33 young people lost their lives as a result of a suicide bomber, and at least 100 people were injured. Most were university students preparing to make a press statement at the Amara Culture Center, en route to Kobane after a call by the Federation of Socialist Youth Associations.
On 3 July 2015, there was an extrajudicial execution in A woman from Rojava, later learned to be Firas Feyad, and who, in order to satisfy her basic needs, wanted to pass from the Afrin Canton to Turkey at the border of Kilis in Gaziantep, on 23 July 2015, lost her life when Turkish Armed Forces opened fire. The incident is considered as an extrajudicial execution. As an investigation into the event could not be carried out, the identity of the person who died remains unclear.
On 25 July 2015, Günay Özarslan’s home in the district of Bağcılar in Istanbul was raided by the police on suspicion of involvement with DHKP-C, and he was extra-judicially executed. 15 bullets were said to have come out of Günay Özarslan’s.
On July 25 2015 in the district of Cizre in Şırnak, as a result of special operations police having opened fire on a group protesting ongoing detentions and cross-border military operations, Abdullah Özdal (21), who was watching the events from the balcony of his home, lost his life when a bullet struck his chest.
On July 26, 2015, in Mersin, Bulent Ecevit Güngör (35) was killed by an unknown assailant. A resident of the province of Mersin, he was heavily injured after being struck in the head by an object while sitting on his balcony in Mersin during a protest against the massacre in Suruç, air strikes, and detentions, and lost his life at a nearby hospital.
On July 26, 2015 in the district of Bağlar in Diyarbakır, Beytullah Aydın (11) lost his life when he fell from the seventh story of a building he had taken refuge in after being chased by a police team intervening in a group of protestors.
On July 27 2015 in the district of Nusaybin in Mardin, Seyithan Dede (19), died after being shot in the neck when police opened fire on a group protesting recent military operations.
On July 29, 2015, in the district of Cizre in Şırnak, police teams opened fire on four people disembarking from a vehicle the police had stopped. Hasan Nerse (17) was shot and heavily injured. Bound by his hands and feet and unable to move, Hasan Nerse died as a result of police preventing access to the scene.
On July 30, 2015, in the neighborhood of Sıtkiye in Ağrı, police raided a house and murdered three youths. Two of the executed, Sezai Yaşar (26) and Ahmet Yaşar, were brothers, registered residents of the Diyadin district in Ağrı; the third, Mirzettin Göktürk, was a registered resident of Muş.
On August 1, 2015, in the village of Zergelê, air strikes were carried out on civilians. Since July 24, as part of cross-border operations initiated by the Turkish Armed Forces, bombardments against Kandil have ignored the distinction between civilian and military zones. On August 1, 2015, 8 rocket attacks killed 8 civilians, including two women, one of them pregnant, in air strikes on the region of Kurdistan (northern Iraq) carried out by Turkish warplanes, as part of ongoing cross-border operations. In the same incident in Zergelê, the attacks also heavily injured 27 civilians.
On August 7, 2015, in the district of Silopi in Şırnak, 3 civilians died and 20 were injured as a result of police entering a neighborhood and indiscriminately opening fire on 6 houses, as well as on the vehicles that attempted to take the injured to the hospital. Hospital personnel were threatened by police pointing guns to their heads. The names of those who died by police bullets are: Kamuran Bilin (27), Mehmet Hıdır Tanboğa (15), Hamdi Ulaş (58).
On the night of August 11, 2015, in Nusaybin, an RPG attack was carried out against a government building, with one person killed. According to the accounts of eyewitnesses and family members, Havzullah Doğan (29), father of three and a construction worker, who was described by the governor of Mardin, Ömer Faruk Koçak, in a statement claiming that “a member of the separatist terrorist organization has been deactivated”, came under fire of indiscriminate shooting by special operations police while passing by. Injured, Doğan took refuge in the yard of a house, where, according to the same accounts, police entered and executed him.
On the evening of 12 August 2015, in the district of Diyadin in Agri, following the armed attack on the gendarmerie station at 20.00-21.00, Special Forces executed three people, including two children. 14-year-old Muhammet Aydemir and 16-year-old Orhan Aslan, both working at a bakery, were executed in the bakery they were carrying wood to by Special Forces. The deceased body of an unidentified man had also been found among the ruined buildings in the neighborhood of Murat. Five people from the Karaman family who witnessed the execution have been taken into custody.
19-year-old Mazlum Kaynak was arrested on suspicion of theft in Istanbul and brought to the Karasu district of Sakarya on 13 August 2015. The following morning, fleeing the courtroom, he lost his life under police fire.
On 13 August 2015, according to information obtained from local residents, in the neighborhood of Kanartepe, in the district of Bağlar in Diyarbakir, 40-year-old Fahrettin Budak was killed by three bullets to the chest and back, due to crossfire from special forces, who blockaded the neighborhood around 23:00.
Omer Cinkilic (23), wounded when soldiers opened fire in front of the Sorgun Military Barracks in Bitlis, lost his life in a hospital on 17 August 2015. According to claims, Cinkilic was taken to Tatvan State Hospital following serious injuries after soldiers opened fire in response to two persons in a civilian car traveling from Ahlat to Tatvan, who allegedly threw an empty bottle in the direction of the booths of a duty officer.
On 17 August 2015, around 21:30, a car under the direction of Deputy Police Chief A. hit 72-year-old Gulgun Tuna, who was then attempting to cross the street. Witnesses reported the accident to medical and police units. Following immediate treatment from a paramedic team, Tuna was taken to Karsiyaka State Hospital. Despite all efforts, Tuna lost her life at the hospital. Following the accident, Deputy Chief M.A was taken into custody by his colleagues.
On 17 August 2015 Deputy Security Officer Celal Yilmaz killed a motorcyclist, Ahmet Sulusoglu, with whom he had an argument. The incident took place around 01.00 in front of the Halkali Police Lodging. After the incident, the surrendering officer Yilmaz was taken to the Security Headquarters, to give testimony. The Headquarter officers then transferred Celal Yilmaz to the Kucukcekmece Courthouse. Following his arrest by the Court on Duty, Deputy Security Officer Yilmaz was sent to prison.
22 – On 17 August 2015 during the curfew in the district of Silvan in Diyarbakır, houses and shops were set on fire and neighborhoods were fired upon and bombed. The media reported that several people were wounded and one killed. The state shut all entries to and exits from the district, and all communication was suspended. The name of the person who was shot dead in the head in the process was reported as Serhat Bilen (25). Two other elderly persons lost their lives due to hand grenades: Hanife Duran, 80, and Veysi Toruman, 60, who had a heart attack due to the conflict.
23 – The Governorship of Muş put the number of people killed during the conflicts that took place at Varto on 18 August 2015 at four. The police nearly hijacked the deceased, in order to take them to the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Malatya. The two civilians captured alive but executed by a special operations team were reported as Rahmi Kızıltaş and Abdullah Toprak, born respectively in 1979 and 1989 in the same neighborhood. It is known that their families went to Malatya; the exact location of their execution remains unknown.
24 – On 18 August 2015, Fırat Elmas (16), lost his life in the neighborhood of Tuna in the district of Esenler, a district of Istanbul. He was shot by the police while protesting against the state-led terror strikes on Silvan the day before. After the autopsy, Elmas was buried in Diyarbakır, where he was registered.
25 – In the neighborhood of Yalım in the district of Artuklu in Mardin, on 19 August 2015, police attacked a crowd protesting against the increasing number of operations undertaken by the state. During the attack, where live bullets were used alongside gas bombs, Ali Akpınar (19), was shot dead by the police while returning to his home. It was understood that Akpınar’s neck was targeted during shooting. The ambulance was delayed as entries and exits to the neighborhood were under police control, and Akpınar lost his life due to a loss of blood.
26 – On 19 August 2015, in the İdil district of Şırnak, the police used an excessive amount of gas bombs to dispel a group protesting in the neighborhood of Turgut Özal. After gas bombs and several shootings, Cabbar Acar (21), working as an attendant at a nearby petrol station, was shot dead while returning home.
27 – On 22 August 2015, in the Sur district of Diyarbakır, 4 people were wounded during a clash between police and protesters.
28 – On 26 August 2015, in Yüksekova, 3 people lost their lives and 7 were wounded during incidents that took place at nighttime.
Attacks on HDP Buildings in the Last 15 Days
HDP Kocaeli Headquarter, August 23rd, 2015: The attackers threw rocks, sticks, plastic bottles and broke windows by reaching the building from the building next to it. The attackers shouted slogans that involve heavy insults and swearing. After that, under the supervision of the police, the official fire crew used fire cranes and took the party flags from the buildings in an unlawful fashion. No detentions resulted from the event.
Kırşehır city and district centers, August 23rd, 2015: A group that started to march after a funeral broke the windows of HDP city and district centers with rocks and sticks. No detentions resulted from the event. The police used pepper spray.
Burdur city headquarters, August 21st, 2015: The attackers broke windows, took the name plate, and hung a Turkish flag. The police subsequently dispelled the attackers.
Istanbul, Sultanbeyli, district center, August 10th, 2015: The group attacked the building saying “allahuekber” and “tooth for tooth, blood for blood, revenge, revenge”. The building was damaged by rocks. No detentions resulted from the event.
Kemer district center, July 24th, 2015: The suspects damaged party banners and the name plate on the balcony. The police investigated the security cameras around the building, and took three people under custody without disclosing their identities.
Adana, Dumlupinar, neighborhood office, July 23rd, 2015: The attackers threw a blast bomb, and opened fire. There have been no detentions or suspects.
Antalya, Alanya, district building, August 16th, August 22nd, 2015: The police negotiated with the marching group. The police hung a Turkish flag on the HDP building. The group asked for the name plate from the police. The police called the fire crew and took the HDP name plate with their help and gave it to the group.
Osmaniye, August 22nd, 2015: The attackers threw rocks at the city headquarters and hung a flag on the roof of the building. Although there is only one building’s distance between the headquarters and the police station, the police did not come to the scene of the attack, and took no legal action against the attackers.
Istanbul Kadikoy district centre, August 17th, 2015 and August 24rd, 2015: The attackers burned the doormat, and hanged a banner on the building across the door.
Due to these attacks, resulting in much material damage, we were unable to use our city and district centers.
HDP Law Commission
August 28, 2015