‘Freedom of association violated for 5,498 times in Turkey in 5 years’

"HDP cannot be silenced"

Click to read the article in Turkish

The Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV-HRFT) Academy has released a new fact sheet titled "Criminalizing the Politics: Violations of Freedom of Association," covering the years of 2015-2019.

Based on the reports on violations of rights prepared by the TİHV-HRFT Documentation Center on a daily basis, the fact sheet has found that freedom of association was violated in 5,498 incidents in total.

HDP and DBP faced most violations

The fact sheet has documented the following violations of freedom of association in Turkey in the related 5-year period:

1,788 organizations (foundations, unions, federations and confederations) were permanently closed by Statutory Decrees or court rulings.

While only 19 of these actions of closure were based on court rulings, 1,769 were undertaken as per the Statutory Decrees issued as part of the State of Emergency. 1,614 associations, 132 foundations, 23 confederations and 19 trade unions were closed within this scope.

127 mayors were removed from office and replaced by trustees. 11 lawmakers were stripped of their MP status.

120 mayors and 17 MPs were arrested.

1,954 operations were carried out against the offices of civil and political organizations and the houses of their members and executives.

495 events were prevented by bans, police intervention or other means.

522 violations of rights were in the form of investigations, arrests and penal cases targeting the events of the civil and political organizations and the people who organized/ held these events.

As a result of the violations of freedom of association committed in this period, 15,070 people were detained, 2,709 people were arrested and 551 people were sentenced to 32,523 months in prison.

The number of violent attacks carried out by civil people and groups against the works of association was 428.

617 people were wounded in 164 incidents in this period. 351 of them were wounded as a result of law enforcement officers' use of physical violence, 255 were wounded as a result of violent attacks by civil groups, 11 were wounded by being subjected to torture and maltreatment after being abducted by persons introducing themselves as "police" or "state officials".

According to the fact sheet, the political parties that were subjected to most violations of freedom of association were the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and the Democratic Regions Party (DBP). (SO/SD)

* Click here for the full fact sheet (in Turkish)