Human Rights Watch: A setback for human rights in Turkey and the kidnapping of members of the Gülen movement in the world
Turkey’s human rights situation is among the worst in the world. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is trying to eliminate the followers of his first enemy, Fethullah Gülen, by all means, and close down service centers, even if it involve kidnapping, murder, and detention, in addition to preventing freedom of opinion and expression, restricting women, and spreading violence.
In its World Report 2022, Human Rights Watch highlighted the human rights situation in Turkey, where rights violations are widespread and the government continues to pressure opposition groups on a large scale.
Hio Williamson, Europe and Central Asia Director at Human Rights Watch, said: “The decision to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention represents a major setback in efforts to combat women’s rights and domestic violence, and the choice to punish Osman Kavala instead of ending his arbitrary and illegal detention and releasing him as demanded by the Council of Europe is a clear indication of the European Court of Human Rights’s disobedience”.
Human Rights Watch condemned the kidnapping of Turkish teachers working in the Turkish Foreign Service schools by the Turkish Intelligence Service, highlighting it in its annual report on human rights violations, stressing the failure of the authorities to investigate the incidents of abduction and enforced disappearance. Nearly 30 people have been kidnapped by the Turkish Intelligence Service since 2016, and most of the abductions targeted members of the Gülen Service Movement.
The international human rights organization said the independence of the Turkish judiciary has been severely compromised and no longer enjoyed impartiality, because the ruling authority targets political opponents.
In its annual report, the organization published the names of Turks living abroad who had been kidnapped by the Turkish Intelligence Service and issued emergency decrees against them on charges of belonging to the service movement.
It also referred to the incidents of the abduction of teachers Selahattin Gülen, Orhan Inandi, the former Prime Minister’s Emergency Rapporteur, Ghalib Kuçuk Ozit, as well as teachers Ahmet Ishik and Ayub Birinji, who were sentenced by the Constitutional Court to torture and are still in detention.
The report also revealed that Kurdish MP Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu was arrested, in addition to the killing of Kurds Othman Shaiban and Tharwat Turgut after they were thrown from a helicopter, and the failure of Turkish courts to implement the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights regarding Othman Kavala and Salaheddin Demirtaş.
The organization expressed its reservation on the withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention on Violence against Women in 2021, as Turkey was the first State to withdraw from the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, also known as the Istanbul Convention.
“A restrictive environment prevails in Turkey for the media, human rights defenders, the LGBT community, Kurdish political activists and others perceived by the government as dissidents”, it said, noting that authorities blocked several websites and social media accounts and continued incarceration of 58 journalists as part of the fight against terrorism.
The organization noted that prominent former politicians from the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party in parliament have been imprisoned for five years, and that there is a case of closure against the entire party before the Constitutional Court.
It stressed that political control over the courts lay at the heart of the deep erosion of the rule of law in Turkey and that a culture of impunity continued to prevail in cases of rights violations and enforced disappearances committed by law enforcement.
The report also stated that in the past year hate speech and crimes against migrants had risen dramatically in Turkey, with signs of an increase in racist and xenophobic attacks.
