Last weekend, I participated in a meeting of the Turkish Human Rights Foundation (TİHV). The activists also described their efforts being like those of firefighters. Rightfully, they were complaining that they don't have time to stop and think, or to work for preventive measures.Whatever they do, regardless of amendments to the law, despite the words of "zero tolerance" in the face of torture, there are still violations of human rights in Turkey.
Just like a fire, even the slightest negligence or loss of focus turns into uncontrollable (con)flagrations. Who can bring back Engin Çeber, who died while being tortured in custody?
To fight fires demands, first of all, a certain culture of preparation; awareness should be very high; early warning systems should be established; certain rules in order to prevent fires should be implemented; exercises and maneuvers should be done and everybody should know their responsibilities in case of fire.
In some government offices, there are warnings on the cupboards where important files are kept, "Save first in case of fire," but when it comes to human rights in Turkey, there is a warning sticker on them which reads, "Ignore first in case of any social, political or economic spark."
It is true that Turkey has made some changes in order to improve human rights. Although those state officials responsible claim that they have been made for the sake of "citizens," there is no reason to deceive ourselves, they have been done for the sake of the European Union accession process. At the moment, this process has started to slow down, and the implementations of these new amendments have started to slow down also.
In the past, when there was a human rights violation, the same boring song we used to hear from officials was, "It did not happen." Later the song changed and we started to hear the "These are individual cases" song, although the violations were, indeed, systematic. Nowadays the song that we are listening to is slightly different: "It will take time to change minds to truly implement the amendments."
This song is as boring as the previous ones for two reasons. Firstly, the basic principle of human rights has not been settled in our sovereign culture yet -- but human rights are for everyone, regardless of ideology, gender, position and social status, ethnic identity, belief and the like. Secondly, if the state, which is mainly responsible for violations of human rights, wants to do so, it can force its officials to implement the changes. There is no reason to wait for the sudden enlightenment of officials.
Human rights activists have some deficits, too. Even though they may not be consciously aware of it because of the limited sources of information available to them, they are implementing a "hierarchy of rights" -- promoting some rights over others. Sometimes ideological blindness makes them unable to see the fires. They have a tendency to forget that there are sources of human rights violations other than the state -- organizations, establishments, husbands, fathers or whatever or whoever holds power over others. It is true that the state, in the end, is responsible for all of it, including domestic violence, because it does not offer protection to those who are vulnerable. But then again, the state is not the sole source of human rights violations. There are also some new areas which have to be defined as human rights, such as access to clean water, shelter, nutrition and the like, but we are not yet able to discuss them.
It is impossible not to sometimes wonder, if the rights of every single human being were respected, if instead of mentioning the rights of social groups or minorities, if we were able to discuss the right to be different even between individual people, where would now stand on the Kurdish question? Where would we stand on the problem of secularism? Would the fire engulfing the country have grown so big? It is time for everyone to carry a huge bucket of water to the fire, which will burn the whole country one day.
