"Should We Hang the Police Officers?"

The Minister of the Interior, İdris Naim Şahin, criticized the news about Fevziye Cengiz who was beaten at the Karabağlar Police Centre in Izmir. In Şahin's opinion, this was a single incident and the news was exaggerated.

Cengiz was taken into police custody on 16 July because he did not have his ID at an ID check in a night club in Izmir. He was beaten by police officers at the Karabağlar Police Centre. The police officers who treated Cengiz violently were suspended from duty for five months which was the reason for negative reactions of the public. After footage of the violent treatment had been published in the media, the Izmir Governorship suspended two plainclothes and one uniformed police officers from duty as of 9 December 2011and requested an inspector of the Ministry of the Interior to investigate the issue.

Minister Şahin commented the matter at a ceremony of the Police Directorate in Konya. Şahin referred to the news about the incident and asked, "What do they want? Should I put up the gallows on the Konak Square and hang my personnel?"

"Should I give a punishment beyond the one foreseen by the law to the suspects of this incident, to the persons on duty? In other words, should I put up the gallows at the Konak Square in Izmir and hang my personnel? What do they want? When will we be able to reach the concept of differentiating the truth of this issue form the mistakes? This is perhaps one of the subjects that we have not been able to sort out yet".

Minister gave lesson on "press ethics"

Şahin continued, "The prosecutor's office launched an investigation. The suspects became defendants. A disciplinary investigation was started on 17 July. Several months passed until a cassette with footage of the incident came up this month on 3 December. The reporting started upon this cassette".

"Is this a secret cassette? No. Is it a cassette made by anybody from outside? No. This cassette recorded the movements and behaviour of police officers at the Izmir Karabağlar Police Station, an attitude and behaviour that we did not see before. This is the cassette of the state that works at the Izmir Karabağlar Police Station. This cassette was part of the case file of the prosecution as evidence. Did we give the cassette to the place it belonged to? We submitted it to the prosecution.(...)"

"Do we have the right to present this cassette to the public on 3 December as if it was a new subject and to mislead the public as far as the timing is concerned? We are who we are. We are either a state institution or a media institution. Should there not be enough decency to say 'this cassette was taken from the Karabağlar Police Station and submitted to the prosecution'?"

"Is this not required by the general ethics and media ethics? It was said that there were [half-blind] mirrors at police stations in the past. We broke these mirrors. Now there is a cassette and a camera at the police station. This is the point the police and gendarmerie have reached in Turkey".

"Footage could have been erased"

Minister Şahin emphasized that the police officers of the Karabağlar Police Station did not destroy the camera records although they would have been able to do so. He considered it as a positive approach that the footage accounted for as evidence had not been destroyed.

"I apologize too"

The minister also criticized the TV program Cengiz had attended and described Cengiz's mental state as 'problematic'. "People supposedly keep themselves busy with a program. (...)" Şahin said and complained about news being made on "incidents that do not suit Turkey".

"Mistakes related to human rights in this country are being given and tried to be given as examples. It is obvious that the state of mind is problematic. People are supposedly being engaged in programs. Hundreds of thousands of organizations are trying to harm the image and convey certain messages in the context of this incident".

Şahin referred to terrorist attacks that left civilians dead with special emphasis on the death of mothers. He questioned, "We do not approve of the incident at Karabağlar. We suspended them from duty after the cassette was published. We also apologized on behalf of the Izmir Governor's Office. I apologize too. It is true that this incident does not suit Turkey. Still, are there no other incidents that do not suit Turkey? Why do we not see those".

Minister Şahin considered the incident at the Karabağlar Police Centre a single incident. He concluded, "The incident in Karabağlar was and still is being evaluated within its limits. The judicial and disciplinary investigations are still going on. But there are other issues in this country. We are ignoring them. These women are being ignored during the human rights week". (IC)