The Bloody Uniforms of the Palace Regime – Tormentor Soldiers-4
With its studies and report, the "Advocates of Silenced Turkey (AST)", a human rights organization, reveals the human rights violations that took place in Turkey during and after the July 15, ill-treatment and torture by the state's official institutions and persons.
AST disclosed the names of 108 torturers, who were officially registered with the statements of the accused and witnesses, in the reports of the Torturers in Turkey, published in November 2020 and recently. Among these names are those in power, who tortured people who oppose him by using their political position and influence, generals, officers and non-commissioned officers who tortured their comrades, police chiefs, police officers, guards, and even judges and prosecutors who should try people fairly.
You can access the reports published by AST from the link below.
In this article, we will focus on some of the torturer officers mentioned in the report.
Proof that loyalty to the Palace Regime has replace merit in Turkish Armed Forces
- Tuğg. Oğuz Tozak
- Tuğg. Mustafa Köksal
- Tuğg. Ertuğrul Erbakan
The above-mentioned soldiers, whose names were proven by the statements of the accused, and who were the perpetrators of systematic torture and illegal interrogations at the General Staff Headquarters, were promoted to the rank of Brigadier General after this outstanding torture performance (!) and their unconditional loyalty to the palace regime. One of them, Oğuz Tozak, was appointed as the Deputy Special Forces Command. The defendants tried at the Ankara 17th High Criminal Court have stated that Mustafa Köksal and Brigadier General Oğuz Tozak personally conducted the torture sessions.
They threaten people with their daughters and wives
Some of the statements given by the defendants in the courts are as follows:
“…Torture rooms are being set up in Special Forces under the command of Zekai Aksakallı and Oğuz Tozak. They beat everyone under their supervision up to the point of knocking them out. They tie their hands and feet in what we call pig tie. Let me describe the pig tie for you. The hands are tied with reverse handcuffs, the feet are tied, and the hands and feet that are tied are tied together on the back of the body. This is so that you can create a picture in your mind. Their eyes are tied directly with duct tape. One by one, people tied with a pig's tie are tumbling down the stairs. They threaten the people they have worked with for years with their daughters and wives. Zekai Aksakallı and Oğuz Tozak are also established a torture center at the General Staff and interrogated people...”
“…Who is this Oguz Tozak? This is the man who entered my room on the night of July 19, cleared all my tables before the prosecutor’s office search, put all my hard drives into a bag; I don’t know where he took them. This is the man who is the source of all the rumors about me. This man is also the information source of Satı Bahadır Köse.”
Oğuz Tozak, who took testimony with torture, prepares an Administrative Investigation Report and watches the footage before the prosecutor
Aktürk, who made his defense at the hearing held in the hall at the Ankara 17th High Criminal Court claimed that Brigadier General Oğuz Tozak accused him with a photo shot taken from a camera footage when he came to work on Sunday, August 1st. Aktürk continued as follows: “Tozak, along with the fully equipped Special Forces Command personnel, took me to Tufan Aktaş's room and made me sit on the floor. He insulted me and hit me without giving me a chance to explain the situation. There were no arrest warrants against me yet.”
Witnesses unanimously state that they handed over the footage to Colonel Oğuz Tozak, not to the Prosecutor. The police officer, who was in charge of the Anti-Cyber Crime Branch, who initially located the camera records, says that he occasionally received information from Oğuz Tozak and transferred it to the Public Prosecutor, and that the backup was carried out entirely under the supervision and control of military personnel, including Oğuz Tozak and Alaettin Daşdemir. There is a statement on the F-5 page of the administrative investigation report: "The first examination of the images was made by two officers under the command of Colonel Oğuz Tozak."
This means that hard disks have been dismantled, moved, copied and viewed by unauthorized persons. There are still controversial footage of missing footage available today. In particular, images that can be used in favor of the accused are deliberately hidden. The person who made the first examination of these was Oğuz Tozak. It is highly probable that the images have been manipulated.
Considering the incompetent soldiers who were promoted due to their loyalty to the palace regime and whose names were mentioned with torture, it is obvious that the current situation of the Turkish Armed Forces is not a surprise.
Fatih Ayhan Acar
References
Advocates of Silenced Turkey – Türkiye’de ki İşkenceciler Kasım 2020 Raporu
