Global Torture Fighters, “In prison for protecting torture victims in Turkey”, 26 May 2010.

 Sometimes, rather than being taken into custody, Turkish Dr Alp Ayan, who walks with the aid of crutches due to the effects of polio, has been threatened with violence by police forces. "We will break your leg at your next activity’, he was warned.

The threats were not enough to intimidate the 51-year psychiatrist and psychotherapist, who continued his work for torture victims. “Thank god my right leg is stronger and I stand better than they - and even I - expected”, he tells.

Dr Alp Ayan is one of a number of Turkish medical doctors who, at great personal risk, have documented cases of torture and treated torture survivors in Turkey. Because of his work and expression of opinions, Dr. Ayan has been repeatedly harassed by the Turkish authorities.

Dr Ayan has even been imprisoned as a result of his professional life dedicated to the treatment and rehabilitation of torture survivors, advocacy for victims, and the development of techniques for the detection and documentation of evidence of torture.

In 1999, Dr. Ayan was arrested while en route to join the funeral of Nevzat Ciftci, one of the ten political prisoners killed under torture at Ankara Ulucanlar Prison. After 113 days in pre-trial detention in the Bergama Prison, in the Northern Aegean region of Turkey, he was charged with participating in an “illegal demonstration” and “resisting the police with violence”.

At one point, there were 60 accusations filed against him. Overall, he has attended more than 200 court hearings. The court proceedings have been extremely time-consuming and have prevented him from giving his full attention to his work. They have also imposed a financial burden as he has had to hire lawyers to present his defence in multiple cases.

Dr. Ayan has been found not guilty in all but two of these instances, which involved lengthy trials, numerous court appearances and periods in prison. In these two cases, he was sentenced to a total of three years in prison. Ayan has appealed the two guilty verdicts before the Supreme Court of Turkey, which resulted in the dismissal of one case because it entered the statue of limitations. He still waiting for a sentence of the second case, but he expects that it also be dismissed for the same reason.

Despite the personal price he has paid for his commitment, Dr. Ayan does not intend to give up his work for torture victims, which he has been dedicated to since 1989, when he worked as a volunteer for the Human Rights Association and Izmir Medical Chamber Human Rights Commission. He helped establish the internationally-respected Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (HRFT) and worked there as a volunteer until 1994. Since then, he has worked as a psychiatrist for the HRFT’s Treatment and Rehabilitation Center in Izmir — focusing on the treatment and rehabilitation of torture survivors, detection and documentation of evidence of torture, and the training of health professionals.

“For the decades to come, I hope I will continue to be part of the family which has been struggling against torture both in Turkey and in the world”, he says.

Internationally recognised as an authority on the treatment and rehabilitation of tortured people, Dr. Ayan has published extensively and presented papers about his research and experiences at the HRFT’s Izmir Center at numerous scientific conferences. He has long been committed to training other health professionals to work in this area.

Dr. Ayan is a contributing author to the Istanbul Protocol, a manual for the effective investigation and documentation of torture, and a joint project of the HRFT, Association of Forensic Medical Specialists (ATUD), and Turkish Medical Association, among other organisations.

In 2006, he received the Barbara Chester Award for his work with survivors of torture.

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