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Issue Country: Turkey Subject: Treatment Centers Reopened Alert Dates: 5 August 1998, 22 June 1998, 12 May 1997, 27 January 1997, 20 November 1996, 30 September 1996, 14 May 1996, 26 April 1996, 16 February 1996 Case Number: TU9432.ONEN Human Rights Issues
AAAS is pleased to announce the reopening of the Diyarbakir torture treatment and rehabilitation center on 30 July 1998. Police had closed the center, which is operated by the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey, just three days after its initial opening on 13 June. Despite repeated governmental interference with its work, the Foundation was permitted to reopen the Diyarbakir center after its representatives presented additional documentation to local government authorities. The center's opening is particularly important, because Diyarbakir is one of the cities in closest proximity to the armed conflict in the southeast of Turkey. It is inhabited by thousands of refugees who have either been forced to leave their villages, or have fled due to the violence and economic hardship caused by the fourteen year clash between the Kurdish Worker's Party and the Turkish military. The Foundation operates centers for the treatment of torture survivors in four other Turkish cities, Adana, Ankara, Istanbul, and Izmir. As well as operating centers for the treatment and rehabilitation of torture survivors, the HRFT monitors human rights violations in Turkey. It is recognized internationally as one of few reliable sources of human rights information in the country. In 1996 and 1997, the AAAS Science and Human Rights Program attended a number of trials launched against the HRFT. Its founding members were brought to trial in connection with publications of the HRFT, and physicians from its Istanbul and Adana branches were accused of operating illegal medical facilities. No further action is requested. (Sources of information on this case include the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey.) |
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