DilanKaramanoğlu-ÖyküDilaraKeskin /JINHA

ISTANBUL - According to Istanbul lawyer Gülizar Tuncer, recent legal changes in Turkey have dramatically increased the scope for extrajudicial executions.

In the 1990s in Turkey, counter-guerrilla forces in the Kurdish provinces utilized a strategy of extrajudicial executions and forced migrations of villagers. For years, the state apparatus involved serious and systematic human rights violations and crimes against humanity.

Turkish armed forces designed a strategy of "low-intensity war" in the region. In 1993, the Special Warfare Department was converted to the new Special Forces Command. With this change came the aim of"domination of the field and permitting no harbor in the region for the PKK organization. The strategy was implemented in the years 1993 to 1995, under Prime Minister TansuÇiller, when extrajudicial executions were among the systematic rights violations used.

The form of extrajudicial executions has continued until today, if not with the same intensity. Since the elections of June 7, the state of calm and lack of clashes present in the region since 2012 has been pushed to an end. Most recently, on July 25, police executed a woman--GünayÖzarslan--in a dawn raid on her home in Istanbul. Soon after, on July 31, special teams raided a home in the province of Ağrı, executing two of the brothers living in the home along with one other.

According to lawyer Gülizar Tuncer, the Internal Security Law has revived the legal framework for these killings. This framework had been abolished in 1999, when the Constitutional Court canceled the power to "directly and without hesitation open fire," part of the Anti-Terror Law.Since the Turkish Parliament passed the Internal Security Law in February despite strong opposition, police once again have the power to kill civilians at will, Gülizar explained.

"This has now become a power granted to them under the law. It's under the law, but it's not just," said Gülizar. "With this law, they can kill people, quite comfortably."

The law allows police to open fire on people for reasons such as carrying ball bearings and slingshots, covering their faces or attempting to throw Molotov cocktails. Gülizar noted that Turkey has not yet seen the full implementation of all powers granted to police under the law. When this happens, saidGülizar, the situation will deteriorate. She noted that the new law makes it difficult to struggle for justice in the courts. The Constitutional Court of the European Court of Human Rights might provide some respite, but the process would be difficult.

(sö/fk/cm)