Successive governments have been unwilling or unable to assert proper control over the security forces. Human rights violations are criminal offences in Turkey. Yet these violations are committed on a gross scale and no government has ever made a serious attempt to eradicate or to prevent them. The result is that no one in Turkey enjoys true personal security from violations by state forces. Despite repeated promises of reform, Turkish citizens can still be arbitrarily detained.
Torture is still a standard method of interrogation.
Since 1980 more than 400 people have reportedly been tortured to death in custody. Thousands of people were tortured and imprisoned, many because of their non-violent beliefs. Newspapers were shut down and journalists imprisoned. The military attempted to ban the Kurdish language by law. In the years following the return to parliamentary rule in 1983, Turkish civil society struggled to challenge the comprehensive restrictions imposed by the military.