A Turkish torturer at the UN Committee against Torture sessions

The sessions of the UN Committee against Torture continue. Rüştü Yılmaz, a notorious torturer, is also attending the sessions on behalf of the Turkish state delegation.


ANF
NEWS DESK
Thursday, 18 July 2024

The 80th session of the United Nations Committee against Torture continues at the Palais de Wilson of the UN Geneva Office. Within the scope of the sessions, human rights violations, torture and isolation in Turkey are being discussed and debated. In addition to the rapporteurs of the UN Committee against Torture, representatives of non-governmental organisations who have written reports on Turkey are also attending the sessions, as well as a delegation on behalf of the Turkish state.

The Turkish delegation, chaired by Ambassador Kıvılcım Kılıç from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, includes some remarkable names. One of the members of the delegation is Rüştü Yılmaz, who was appointed as the 1st Legal Counsellor of the Ministry of Interior while serving as chief inspector of police after Ali Yerlikaya was appointed by Erdoğan to replace Süleyman Soylu. Rüştü Yılmaz is a member of the Turkish delegation at the Palais de Wilson of the UN Geneva Office in his capacity as Chief Legal Counsellor of the General Directorate of Security of the Ministry of Interior. Yılmaz was the police chief between 2015 and 2021, who established a 6-person torture team in Urfa.

When Erdoğan decided to end the ‘Resolution Process’ immediately after the elections in June 2015 in order to implement the so-called ‘Decomposition Plan’, he claimed that the PKK was responsible for the murder of two police chiefs in the Ceylanpınar district of Urfa. At the time, many people who were later found to be innocent in the subsequent trials signed statements prepared by the police after torturous interrogations. One of the people most frequently mentioned in the judgement process known as the ‘Ceylanpınar Trial’ was Rüştü Yılmaz, the head of the Intelligence Branch in Urfa. The defendants in the Ceylanpınar Trial testified that they had been tortured by Rüştü Yılmaz and that they had been forced to take the blame.

Rüştü Yılmaz's crimes include not only the preparation of the Ceylanpınar Conspiracy. When he was in charge of intelligence, he was among those who turned a blind eye to the reckless use of the borders of Urfa by ISIS gangs and organised the transfer of weapons to them via these borders. On 15 July 2016, in the aftermath of the coup attempt, some former members of the pro-sect police force said that Rüştü Yılmaz was also the person who had hindered the investigations against ISIS.

The Suruç Massacre also took place when Rüştü Yılmaz was the director of intelligence in Urfa. ISIS members came from Adıyaman and carried out a suicide attack in Suruç, as well as a bomb attack on the HDP rally in Diyarbakır on 5 June 2015. The lawyers stated that Rüştü Yılmaz turned a blind eye to the ISIS gangs moving to the attack sites and detonating the bombs in both attacks and filed a criminal complaint against him on the grounds of negligence of duty.

However, these criminal complaints were not processed and decisions were taken in favour of Yılmaz, preventing the prosecution of state officials. It was also seen in many investigation files that Rüştü Yılmaz was the person who paved the way for ISIS gangs into Urfa, Diyarbakır and Antep, where attacks took place, or were sent to other cities in Turkey or North Kurdistan through these cities. Although Rüştü Yılmaz's name was mentioned in many of these attacks, which resulted in nearly 800 casualties, not a single investigation was opened against this person because the necessary legal permissions were not granted by the ministry.

Rüştü Yılmaz was specially assigned to perpetrate torture after the ‘coup attempt’. Yılmaz, who was on duty in Urfa in the mentioned period of time, formed a special team of 6 people and tortured the supporters of the (Gülen) Sect and members of the HDP.

Rüştü Yılmaz, who committed countless crimes of torture and inhuman massacres, was first appointed as chief inspector of police. In 2023, he was appointed as the 1st Legal Advisor of the Ministry of Interior by a decree signed by Erdoğan. The same Rüştü Yılmaz is attending the 80th session of the United Nations Committee against Torture, where Turkey's torture crimes are discussed, representing the Turkish delegation.