“Doctors Battered, Equipment Destroyed”

Human Right Foundation of Turkey (TIHV) released a report, saying that 3,413 people were detained and 94 arrested during Gezi Resistance. 

The arrest charges included: “being an illegal organization leader or member”, “public property damage”, “having a weapon or bullets” and “storming a mosque”. 

The report also cited Turkish Doctors Union’s (TTB) statistics as of June 27, which said at least 8,041 people were admitted to hospitals or volunteer infirmaries due to various injuries or chemical gas affection. 

A recent poll made on TTB website revealed that 11,155 have been somewhat affected by chemical weapon/demonstration control agents. 

Gezi protestors Abdullah Cömert, Ethem Sarısülük, Mehmet Ayvalıtaş and police officer Mustafa Sarı died during the protests. On June 15, Zeynep Eryaşar died of heart attack due to a police gas bomb in Istanbul’s Avcılar district.  

“Whose doctor are you?”

TİHV’s “Preliminary Report on Gezi Resistance” also included experience of those who were subjected to excessive police violence. 

It cited the experience of a volunteer doctor who admitted patients at Nazım Hikmet Culture Center in Ankara on June 2 as follows: 

“Around 11 pm, police casted tear gas bombs inside the infirmary. Health care providers could only leave through a corridor of police forces who beat them harshly. Those who chose to stay inside were forced to leave the infirmary. They destroyed all the medical equipment once everybody was out.”

“I was serving at another infirmary the next day. A policeman fired a gas bomb inside the infirmary. I told him I was a doctor. He asked me ‘whose doctor I was’ and started attacking me.”

“They aimed people’s heads while shooting”

The report also cited the experience of those who were subjected to tear gas or other chemical agents canisters by deliberately being aimed. 

"As I noticed that a fast object was passing by, I looked at the policeman who was operating the police vehicle called Scorpion. I noticed that he was aiming a gas bomb directly at me. The second canister flew right above my head. The third one hit my leg.”

“I saw that police was tearing down the wall of a tube tunnel and throwing gas bombs at people. I immediately decided to run away, but a gas bomb hit my left leg as I sprang forward. I couldn’t escape...”

“I remember kicks with boots”

The TIHV report cited an another applicant’s victimization as follows: 

“ON June 2013, he was out in the streets to join Gezi Park protests. Then he saw police attacking and people dispersing. He couldn’t away swiftly as he was sick.   

“He doesn’t remember the rest of the story. All he could gather was being kicked by boots of some uniformed officers. The next day, he opened his eyes at the hospital. He was hospitalized for 4 days.”

TIHV report also claimed that “law enforcement officers systematically exercised violence on Gezi Park protestors which reached up to ill-treatment and torture under the orders of government”. (AS/BM)

* Photo credit: Yakup Çabuk / AA