HRW Calls on Turkey to Release Jailed Critics, Respect Elections Results
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The prolonged and arbitrary detention of journalists, human rights defenders, and politicians blights Turkey's claims of being a country that respects human rights and the rule of law, Human Rights Watch said today (January 15) in its World Report 2020.
In the 652-page World Report 2020, its 30th edition, Human Rights Watch reviews human rights practices in nearly 100 countries.
"Keeping government critics locked up and cancelling the results of local elections won by opposition party candidates demonstrates the lengths to which the Erdoğan presidency will go to undermine human rights and democracy in Turkey," said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
"Turkey silences dissent and has once more denied its Kurdish voters their chosen local representatives," he further said.
Here are highlights from the report on Turkey:
Local elections
"Turkey's presidency forced a controversial rerun of the March 31, 2019 local election in İstanbul metropolitan municipality, which was won by opposition candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu. In southeastern Turkey, the authorities have removed 32 elected mayors from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), and detained 23 of them, accusing them of terrorism links.
Dismissal of HDP mayors
"In August, the Interior Ministry removed from office the HDP mayors of Diyarbakır, Van and Mardin greater municipalities, newly elected by the majority of votes in the March 31 local elections, accusing them of links with terrorism on the basis of ongoing criminal investigations and prosecutions.
"In place of the voters' chosen mayors, the Interior Ministry appointed provincial governors as "trustees" to run the municipalities and dissolved the local council, thus suspending local democracy in each city. In the following months, the removal of other elected HDP mayors in districts in the region continued with 24 removed at the time of writing and 14, including Diyarbakir Mayor Adnan Selçuk Mızraklı, jailed pending investigation and trial."
Prosecution against rights defenders and politicians
"Among government critics held in prolonged and arbitrary detention are Osman Kavala, a human rights defender; Ahmet Altan, a writer; Adnan Selçuk Mızraklı, elected mayor of Diyarbakır; and Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, former chairs of the People's Democratic Party.
"Thousands of government critics have been prosecuted on terrorism charges in unfair proceedings that lack compelling evidence, resulting in bogus convictions that demonstrate the presidency's intolerance of legitimate dissenting opinion and the right to political association in the country.
"Thousands of ordinary people labelled supporters of the Fethullah Gülen movement or accused of links to the armed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) have been detained without compelling evidence of their involvement in criminal activities."
Refugees
"Turkey remains host to the highest number of refugees in the world, with an estimated 3.7 million Syrian refugees in the country in addition to asylum seekers from other countries.
"In 2019, in a reversal of policy, Turkey's government increasingly signaled through deportations and political statements that Syrian refugees should be resettled in parts of northern Syria occupied by Turkish forces and their proxies, following a military incursion there in October.
"Turkish-backed militias that control territory in those areas have committed violations such as summary killings and enforced disappearances of Kurdish civilians, including political activists and emergency responders, as well as looting and unlawfully appropriating property, and arbitrarily denying the right of Kurdish Syrians to return to their homes and properties." (AS/VK)