One year after the Gezi protests, Amnesty International provides the Turkish government a miserable witness from. Violent police officers go unpunished, peaceful demonstrators in the process.

As a year ago in Istanbul Gezi protest began a protest by environmentalists against building mania and against the felling of the few remaining in downtown trees, the Turkish government had a choice: either they could take the complaints of the people seriously, the compromise Search and extend a hand to all those who had turned away from her. Or they could put to even greater polarization by declaring their critics as enemies and so was hoping for more support from their own ranks.

The human rights organization Amnesty International comes to a clear conclusion: The government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had opted for the latter route, according to a presented this Tuesday in Istanbul report. “Adding Injustice to Injury” is the 50-page document, like this: “After the injury, the injustice.”

“His standard response to different crises was to silence critics or to destroy, while he accused shameful inner and outer agents to sow discord,” write the human in it. “The result was that the fronts have hardened in Turkish society and the respect of human rights in the country has taken enormous damage.”

Amnesty International to Turkey:Against demonstrators specious reasons given

A country-wide protest against the authoritarian style of government of Erdogan was rapidly from the small Istanbul rally become a rebellion against undemocratic governance, after the police had the environmentalists forcibly evicted from the Gezi Park.

Amnesty International has documented the report especially that police violence in Turkey remains largely unpunished, while peaceful protesters are drawn by the state spurious reasons to account.

Until July, 2013, when the protests began to ebb, more than 8,000 people were injured, at least four people died as a direct result of police violence. Police criticized Amnesty International, have used disproportionate force, they’ve shot at demonstrators with tear gas and water cannons and had gone off with batons on them. According to official figures, there were in 79 of 81 provinces protests, about 3.5 million people took part.

In Turkey, a total of 5500 people are currently indicted for organized protests or have even taken part in it. In the cases in which they were accused of violence, the accusations were not supported by evidence. “Journalists, doctors and lawyers who documented the events that supported the protesters or their rights defended, were arrested, beaten or threatened,” it said in the paper. Even social media users were prosecuted because they published information about the protests. The government had taken action against anyone who had criticized.

Amnesty International to Turkey:”The injustice continues”

Despite the many thousands injured and hundreds of ads for abusive use of force but I have been only seven cases lawsuits against nine police officers. Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International, speaking in Istanbul of a “unilateral legal fight” the Gezi protests. “In addition, demonstrators are made on the basis of anti-terror laws in the vicinity of terrorists,” he told media. A new law prohibits emergency medical assistance during such demonstrations. Indeed, against several doctors who helped injured during the protests, disciplinary sanctions imposed. “The injustice continues,” Shetty summarizes.

The ruling party AKP had chosen “the path of intolerance, conflict and polarization,” the authors judge. There are feared further damage to human rights in Turkey.

To substantiate their criticism, they run several cases of state violence during the Gezi protests.

* They document, for example, the case of two doctors who were accused of aiding and abetting crimes and because of the disregard of religious places because they had            treated protesters in a mosque.

* They report the case of a student who was hit by a tear gas cartridge and seriously injured. The police went unpunished.

* Or from a street cleaner who was hit while working from a cartridge in the face and blinded.

* Or by a bus driver who was beaten by police and thrown into a fire.

In all these and hundreds of other cases, no investigation had been added. In cases where members made ​​pressure, had been investigated remiss information had been withheld from the plaintiffs. Also, the world has become known case of the boy Berkin Elvan, who was hit by a gas floor of the police when he wanted to get bread for breakfast, and who died in a coma after nine months remained unclear. Amnesty International learned of the family lawyer that it was not even able to bring in experience, which police on that day and in that place were on duty. First, the police had sent a list of another day, then from another place, to finally, months later, to announce that on the day in question and place no policemen were in use.

An ACP spokesman said on request, criticizing the Turkish government was “unfair” because even “violent people among the demonstrators” were, “Molotov cocktails and stones thrown” would.

This answer will not be accepted Amnesty International. “A democratic state must ensure that people can take to the streets and speak their minds,” says Secretary General Shetty. “He may not use a couple of Violent as an excuse to ban demonstrations or suppress by force.”

Take the economic success of the government’s knowledge and also the fact that the ACP with the local elections in March 2014 “the most popular and best organized political party” of the country remain, write the report’s authors. But the rulers would have to change course, to respect human rights. The right to freedom of assembly, exposing the persecution of peaceful demonstrators and the prosecution of police violence would be a good start.

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