A total of 74 petitions relating to human rights violations submitted to the Turkish parliament’s Human Rights Commission by Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, a deputy from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), have gone answered, according to a report by online news outlet T24.
Sixty-one of Gergerlioğlu’s petitions have been on human rights violations in prisons and 13 concern other other violations since July 18, 2018. Gergerlioğlu said the lack of a response painted a tragic picture and said all petitions, including those of allegations of torture in prisons, required urgent attention.
Gergerlioğlu also said that only 20 out of 46 written questions he has addressed to Vice President Fuat Oktay and various ministries were published on the parliamentary website.
“The Parliamentary Human Rights Investigation Commission, of which I am a member, has not responded to my request for visits to investigate 61 alleged violations in 42 prisons. The Human Rights Investigation Commission has also not yet given an answer to 13 petitions I submitted for violations of rights outside prisons,” said Gergerlioğlu.