Turkey's massacre of journalists Cihan Bilgin and Nazım Daştan, who were following the news in North and East Syria, by targeting them in a vehicle with a press sticker on it, brought the war crimes committed by Turkey back to the agenda. So, what are war crimes and how many have Turkey committed so far?

 

WHAT ARE THE LAW OF WAR AND WAR CRIMES? 

 

The international law of war is the rules and principles applied during inter-state armed conflicts. The main purpose of the law of war is to minimise the loss of people and property in war, to defend human rights and to limit the impact of war. If states do not comply with this law, war crimes are considered to have been committed.

 

5 OUTSTANDING PRINCIPLES

 

Five principles stand out in the law of war. The first of these is the principle of distinction, i.e. the distinction between civilian and military targets, and the prohibition of harming civilians and civilian infrastructure in military actions. The second is the principle of proportionality, i.e. the proportionality of the use of military force and the prohibition of the use of unnecessary or excessive violence. The third principle is that the right to life of civilians and prisoners of war should not be violated and they should not be subjected to ill-treatment. The fourth principle is the prohibition of the use of chemical and biological weapons, and the fifth and final principle is disarmament and peace negotiations, negotiations for the end of the war and the provision of peace.

 

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE LAW OF WAR

 

How did these principles and guidelines come about? War crimes have been punished by national courts since the Middle Ages; however, war crimes first became comprehensive law with the Lieber Rules issued by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 during the American Civil War. Later, war crimes were regulated by the Hague Convention IV of 1907, the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their protocols of 1977. Later, Article 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) gives the ICC jurisdiction over the majority of war crimes defined in these treaties and customary international law and committed during international armed conflict. After 1 July 2002, the International Criminal Court was established in The Hague to hear cases of war crimes committed after 1 July 2002.

 

WAR CRIMES COMMITTED BY TURKEY

 

The Turkish state has committed many war crimes since its establishment. Historically, the use of chemical weapons, the massacre of civilians, the targeting of civilian settlements and infrastructures, the harassment, rape and even the murder of both military and civilian "prisoners", especially funerals, have all been committed by the Turkish state.

 

MASSACRE OF CIVILIANS

 

Although then President Tayyip Erdoğan acknowledged the massacres against civilians on 31 March 2006 at the provincial presidents' meeting of his party in Ankara with the words "Our security forces will do whatever intervention is necessary, whether it is women or children", Turkey's history of massacres against civilians goes back a long time. From Dêrsim to Zîlan, from Zîlan to Roboskî, Turkey carried out many massacres of civilians.

 

WAR CRIMES AGAINST KURDS

 

*On 13 July 1930, tens of thousands of Kurds were massacred in the Zîlan Valley in the Erdîş (Erciş) district of Wan. 44 villages including Hesenebdal, Exs, Kelle, Qizil Kilîse, Zorova, Binesî, Bunizî, Pelexl and Kerx villages were set on fire. 15 thousand people were massacred according to official documents, but 40 thousand people were massacred according to different sources.

 

*With the decision of the Council of Ministers dated 4 May 1937, military operations were launched against Dêrsim and according to official documents, between 1937 and 1938, 13,160 people, including women and children, were killed and 11,818 people were sent into exile.  Many Alevi Kurdish girls were either given as "wives" or "adopted" by the soldiers.

 

*Thousands of villages were evacuated and burnt down in the 1990s. 10 thousand people were exiled and at least 17 thousand people were murdered by the state's contras and security forces in unsolved murders.

 

* On 28 December 2011, civilians in Roboski were bombed by F-16 fighter jets. 34 civilians lost their lives in this attack.

 

* Journalists have always been among Turkey's targets. The targeting of journalists, which started with the murder of Apê Musa in the 90s, still continues. In the last 5 years alone, 13 journalists were killed and 7 of them were wounded in attacks against the Federated Kurdistan Region and North and East Syria. Vedat Erdemci, Seed Ehmed, Mihemed Hisen Reso, Dilovan Gever, Zîzis Sînke, Nagihan Akarsel, Îsam Ebdullah, Necmedîn Feysel El Hac Sînan, Murat Mîrza, Gulîstan Tara and Hêro Behaddîn, Nazım Daştan and Cihan Bilgin are journalists killed in the last 5 years.

 

* The Syrian Organisation for Human Rights announced on 10 December that 162 people were killed and 194 people were injured in violations committed against civilians in North and East Syria in 2024.

 

BOMBING OF CIVILIAN SETTLEMENTS

 

Another war crime is the destruction and demolition of civilian settlements. Turkey destroyed many civilian settlements, including wheat silos, oil refineries and hospitals, during its attacks on northern and eastern Syria. Some of the attacks are as follows:

 

*On 21 December, Turkey bombed the Metin village of Kobanê and the surroundings of Sirrin town. In this attack with Sikhs, wheat silos in Sirrin town were targeted and at least 300 tonnes of wheat was destroyed.

 

*On 17 December, during the attacks on Northern and Eastern Syria, Turkey bombed the village of Bîrxat-Îbrahîm Kurdo, west of Girê Spî, 5 times with Armed Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs).

 

*On 21 August 2024, a drone of the occupying Turkish state bombed the Heart and Eye Hospital and Heyva Sor Hospital in Qamışlo city. There were injuries and material damage occurred in the attack.

 

* On 6 October 2023, a hospital in Qamishlo was bombed and 10 people were injured in the Turkish attacks on the region. Villages and gas plants around Derik were targeted.

 

*On 13 December 2022, the Euphrates Region Education and Training Board stated that education was suspended in 16 schools close to the frontline out of 461 schools in Kobanê Canton on 20 November due to Turkey's violent attacks on Northern and Eastern Syria, and that the school in Koranê village in the east of Kobanê was completely destroyed due to the attacks. The Education Board stated that the schools in the villages of Bexdîk, Xan, Qeremox, Cêşan, Werbîsan, Elîşar, Zormixar, Çarqlî, Zorava, Sivtik, Korelî, Ziyaretê, Boban, Beyade and Çilxilo were also destroyed in the recent Turkish attacks.

 

RIGHTS VIOLATIONS AGAINST CIVILIANS AND PRISONERS OF WAR

 

Turkey's systematic torture of the Kurdish people for years continues in detention. Many captured PKK members are subjected to torture and ill-treatment in detention. So much so that even the bodies of PKK members who lost their lives are tortured. The tortured bodies of many civilians and PKK members who were killed in custody in the 90s were displayed in cities. One of the most high-profile incidents was the naked body of Kader Kevser Eltürk (Ekin Van), who lost her life during an armed clash in Varto on August 10, 2015.

 

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) noted that ill-treatment and torture have steadily increased since 2017, according to its report on Turkey on January 25, 2024.

 

USE OF CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS

 

Turkey also used chemical and biological weapons, which are considered war crimes, against the Kurdish people. According to official documents, Turkey used chemical weapons against civilians for the first time during the Dersim massacre. In a letter sent by then Deputy Interior Minister Şükrü Kaya to commander Abdullah Alpdoğan, it was understood that the order for poison gas came from then President Kemal Atatürk and Prime Minister İsmet İnönü. The letter included the following statements:

 

“Mr. Very valuable Abdullah Alpdoğan Pasha,

 

Dear General, I have read the report you sent to the Ministry. You have requested burning and suffocating gas from the Tayyare Regiment Command, Fire and National Defense. Some ignorant people in the government are trying to prevent your demands from being met. As a matter of fact, they did not succeed. Our President of the Republic and our Prime Minister have ordered that the urgent supply of their demands is mandatory and that they should be delivered immediately. In fact, I have no doubt that the demands will be met in the end, and that they will be used as they should be used, and that all the pranksters will be buried in those caves so that they will not come to life again.

I greet you with respect and wish you continued success.

 

26/4/1937

 

Deputy Interior Minister

 

Şükrü Kaya”

 

*On March 30, 1937, the 4th General Inspector General Abdullah Alpdoğan sent a telegram from Elazığ to the Ministry of Interior, the Prime Ministry and the General Staff, stating that “I asked for fire bombs from the Commander of the Aeroplane Regiment and burning and suffocating gas bombs from the National Defense”.

 

*In addition, on August 5, 1937, the Council of Ministers decided to allow the purchase of the relevant gases through secret negotiations, stating that “The proposal made by the Ministry of National Defense with the memorandum dated 26/7/937 and numbered 871 and the proposal approved by the Executive Board of Deputies on 7/8/1937 upon the memorandum of the Ministry of Finance dated 5/8/937 and numbered 3930”.

 

* There is serious evidence that chemical gases were also used against the PKK. There are the opinions of scientists that Turkey has used chemical gases in many attacks since approximately 2019. Turkey does not allow independent committees to examine this issue and tries to silence those who share data or express an opinion on this issue through criminal investigations. 

 

On October 18, 2022, the PKK released footage of two guerrillas who were subjected to a chemical attack in the Avaşîn region. In the video, the PKK stated: “There is a very intense and uninterrupted war in the Werxelê war tunnels. Almost every day, the enemy first makes big explosions with high intensity bombs at the entrances of the war tunnels. Immediately afterwards or simultaneously, they also use odoriferous and odorless chemical gases and pepper spray. Since the explosions are intertwined with each other, it is not clear what exactly is happening. Baz and Helbest were subjected to a chemical weapons attack on different days but in a similar way. After the big explosion, we didn't hear anything from them. Friends reached them and brought them to safety. Other friends who brought these friends took precautions and left. They said that although there were different explosive odors in the environment due to the explosion, they did not smell a very distinct chemical weapon smell, but that there was a dense gray gas.”

 

*In a statement released on 17 December 2022, HPG announced that 11 of its members lost their lives on 5 November 2022 due to the use of chemical weapons. "Although we do not deem it appropriate to share these images with the public at the moment, we state that we can give them to the relevant institutions that will investigate and confirm the war crimes of the Turkish state. We declare that the place where these comrades were martyred is near Saca Village of Şêladizê district of Amediye district of Kurdistan, that those who want to come can easily reach them and that we can help those who want to examine them within the possibilities," it was stated.

 

*According to the balance sheet published by the HPG on 17 October; banned bombs and chemical weapons were used at least 2,476 times in the last six months.

 

MA / Berivan Kutlu