Amnesty International: These are the most notable violations committed by the AKP party regime in Turkey

Amnesty International has uncovered human rights abuses in Turkey by the Justice and Development System of Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

In a report summarizing human rights developments in 154 countries last year, the organization said: Abuses in Turkey have been recorded in the judiciary, freedom of thought and demonstration, as well as torture and violations of the rights of women, LGBT persons and others, Ahval reported.

Amnesty International said on Turkey-related abuses: Deep flaws in the judicial system have not been addressed, groundless investigations have been opened against opposition politicians, journalists, human rights defenders and others, and these people continue to face trials and convictions in 2021.

The rights group said there was pressure against bar associations and a determination that the judiciary was being used as a tool of repression. An example is the investigation launched against 12 Ankara Bar Association directors, following the remarks of the head of religious affairs, Ali Erbaş, in 2020 against homosexuals at a Friday sermon.

Another negative development reported in Turkey is that human rights defender and HDP member Omar Faruk Yerli Oglu, who was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for a tweet in 2016, was imprisoned for being expelled from his parliamentary seat after being sentenced, and the Supreme Court upheld the sentence.

Yerli Oglu’s case with Osman Kavala, who has been in prison for almost four and a half years, comes at the forefront of human rights violations in Turkey, despite decisions by the European Court of Human Rights that he should be urgently released following a violation of his rights.

Other violations noted include severe restrictions on freedom of peaceful assembly and demonstration, restrictions on the right of NGOs to organize under a new regulation, and serious allegations of torture and other ill-treatment.

The phenomenon of government officials targeting LGBT persons with hostile rhetoric and Turkey’s withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention are other negative developments highlighted in the report.

According to Amnesty International’s Turkey director Elise Onver, one of the biggest losses in the past year was Turkey’s withdrawal from the Istanbul Agreement. In her view, by withdrawing from the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, Turkey had been deprived of a vital convention that protected women and girls from all forms of violence without discrimination.

Amnesty International’s report 2021/2020 confirmed that Turkey is providing shelter to 5 million and 200,000 migrants and refugees, while at the same time preventing thousands of asylum seekers from entering the country. With the rise of anti-refugee rhetoric, physical attacks against migrants have also increased.