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Turkey’s Babacan Condemns Torture of Kurdish Citizens

The chair of the Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA), Ali Babacan (File photo: Reuters)
The chair of the Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA), Ali Babacan (File photo: Reuters)
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Turkey’s Babacan Condemns Torture of Kurdish Citizens

The chair of the Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA), Ali Babacan (File photo: Reuters)
The chair of the Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA), Ali Babacan (File photo: Reuters)

Head of Turkey's opposition Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA) Ali Babacan condemned the torture of two Kurdish farmers who were detained by Turkish soldiers and pushed out of a helicopter in September.

The former deputy prime minister called on the Turkish government to investigate the incident and uncover its circumstances.

Babacan also denounced the arrests targeting members of the party, saying that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan should not issue warrants for people who worked on the 2015 peace talks between the government and Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Erdogan accuses the DEVA party, Turkey’s second-largest opposition party and the third-largest parliamentary bloc, of being the political arm of the PKK, which Ankara considers a terrorist organization.

Meanwhile, four Turkish journalists are facing imprisonment for reporting that security forces threw the two Kurdish citizens from a police helicopter while being transported to detention in Van district, east of the country.

The two men identified as Servet Turgut, 55, and Osman Siban, 50, were arrested on September 11.

Police raided the offices of Mezopotamya and Jin news agencies and arrested the four journalists.

Van’s Public Prosecution demanded the imprisonment of the four journalists because their meetings with unknown sources were considered a “crime,” and banned any reports on the case.

Last week, the authorities blocked both sites after they reported that Turkish security forces had detained two Kurdish men and pushed them out of a helicopter in Van province.

Following the incident, Turgut succumbed to his injuries, while Siban still suffers from amnesia.

The Turkish police also prevented DEVA deputies from offering their condolences to the family of Turgut.

Amnesty International urged Ankara to immediately conduct an “independent and impartial” investigation into the matter. 


“These claims must be immediately investigated in an independent and impartial way, and persons suspected of carrying out the alleged torture or other ill-treatment must be brought to justice with a fair trial.”

However, the media office of Van governor issued a statement denying the claims, saying that Turgut fell from a rocky place and resisted arrest.

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Israel’s Retaliatory Responses to Houthis Must Begin by Drawing Intelligence Plan

A person inspects damage at the site where a projectile fired from Yemen landed in Tel Aviv on December 21, 2024 (EPA)
A person inspects damage at the site where a projectile fired from Yemen landed in Tel Aviv on December 21, 2024 (EPA)
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Israel’s Retaliatory Responses to Houthis Must Begin by Drawing Intelligence Plan

A person inspects damage at the site where a projectile fired from Yemen landed in Tel Aviv on December 21, 2024 (EPA)
A person inspects damage at the site where a projectile fired from Yemen landed in Tel Aviv on December 21, 2024 (EPA)

Israel is considering options to respond to repeated attacks fired from Yemen in the past few days, the latest of which was a Houthi missile strike that injured more than a dozen people in Tel Aviv.
But military experts say Israel should first consider an intelligence plan for confronting the new front after it faced significant difficulties in both defending against and responding to the Houthi attacks.
On Saturday morning, Houthis launched a missile that triggered sirens throughout central Israel at 3:44 am. It was the second attack since Thursday.
Israel's military said the projectile landed in Tel Aviv's southern Jaffa area, adding that attempts to intercept a missile from Yemen failed.
“The incident is still being thoroughly investigated,” the army said, adding that following initial investigations by the Israeli Air Force and Home Front Command, “some of the conclusions have already been implemented, both regarding interception and early warning.”
Israeli military experts say the recent Houthi attacks have revealed serious security gaps in Israel's air defense systems.
“The pressing question now is why none of the other of Israel’s air defense layers managed to intercept the warhead,” wrote Yedioth Ahronoth's Ron Ben-Yishai. “The likely explanation is the late detection and the flat trajectory, which prevented the operation of all available defense apparatus.”
He said these incidents might expose a critical vulnerability in the army’s air defense system protecting Israel’s civilian and military home front.
According to Ben-Yishai, two main reasons might explain Saturday’s interception failure.
The first is that the missile was launched in a “flattened” ballistic trajectory, possibly from an unexpected direction.
As a result, Israeli defenses may not have identified it in time, leading to its late discovery and insufficient time for interceptors to operate.
He said the second, and more likely scenario is that Iran has developed a maneuverable warhead.
Such a warhead separates from the missile during the final third of its trajectory and maneuvers mid-flight—executing pre-programmed course changes—to hit its designated target, he wrote.
And while Israel has launched initial investigations into the failure of Israeli defense systems to intercept the missiles, it is now examining the nature, date and location of its response.
When Houthis launched their first missile attack on Israel last Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned them, saying, “The Houthis will learn the hard way.”
But Israeli political analyst Avi Ashkenazi wrote in the Maariv newspaper that Israel should look at reality with open eyes and say out loud that it cannot deal with the Houthi threat from Yemen, and has failed to face them.
Last Thursday, 14 Israeli Air Force fighter jets, alongside refuelers and spy planes, flew some 2,000 kilometers and dropped over 60 munitions on Houthi “military targets” along Yemen’s western coast and near the capital Sanaa.
The targets included fuel and oil depots, two power stations, and eight tugboats used at the Houthi-controlled ports.
But the Maariv newspaper warned about the increasing involvement of Iran in supporting the Houthi forces.
“Iran has invested more in the Houthis in recent weeks following the collapse of the Shiite axis, making the Houthi movement a leader of this axis,” the newspaper noted.
Underscoring the failures of Israel’s air defense systems, Maariv said the “Arrow” missile defense system, Israel's main line of defense against ballistic missiles, had failed four times in a row to intercept missiles, including three launched from Yemen and one from Lebanon.
Yedioth Ahronoth's Ben-Yishai also warned that the threat posed by maneuvering warheads on Iran's heavy, long-range missiles would become existential for Israel should Iran succeed in developing nuclear warheads for these missiles.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Channel 12 said that in recent months, the Middle East has changed beyond recognition.
The channel said that for the first time in more than half a century, a direct and threat-free air corridor has been opened to Iran through the Middle East. Israel will benefit from this corridor to launch almost daily attacks on the border crossings between Syria and Lebanon, it said.
Channel 12 also reported that according to the Israeli military, the new threat-free corridor will help Israel launch a future attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.
“From Israel's perspective, the fall of the Assad regime and the collapse of the Iranian ring of fire are changing the balance of power in the Middle East,” the report added.