25 World Rights Groups Demand Turkey Scrap Emergency Rule


Date posted: October 20, 2016

At least 25 leading international rights groups in various fields, human rights and media, have called for an end to certain measures of emergency rule in Turkey, warning against gross human rights violations and endangering the basic tenets of democracy and the rule of law.

The organizations, which signed the memorandum, underlined the fact that Turkey has every sort of right to investigate the July 15 abortive coup and to find the responsible for the violent events accompanied the failed attempt.

While Turkey’s immediate act to invoke a state of emergency is legitimately understandable, the far-reaching and excessive powers exercised by the authorities during the first three months fuel concerns over the nature of the emergency rule and government decrees, the rights groups said in a joint statement on Oct 19, a day before extension of emergency rule began.

“The removal of fair trial protections and crucial safeguards against torture and other ill-treatment exceed permissible, justified derogations and risk violating the absolute prohibition in international law against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment,” the statement said.

The statement came amid abundant claims of torture and mistreatment of prisoners arrested in the post-coup crackdown.

Recently, president of a prominent lawyers association in Turkey said people jailed as part of a government campaign against the Gulen movement have been subjected to torture in barbaric ways, and even rape, after meeting with lawyers, families, and visits to a hospital.

“They remove the nails of colleagues [during detention] at police stations,” Selçuk Kozagacli, the president of the Modern Lawyers’ Association (CHD) said. He added that he even saw people underwent a colectomy after objects inserted into their anuses at police stations and prisons.

More than a week after the coup, Amnesty International, which is among the signatories of the statement, released a report suggesting credible evidence of torture, mistreatment and even rape against those who were arrested after the coup.

“We call on the Government of Turkey to revoke the measures under the state of emergency, the application of which, in practice is incompatible with Turkey’s human rights obligations,” the Wednesday statement noted.

“At the very least, we urge the Government of Turkey to narrow the scope of the emergency measures by revoking provisions that enable human rights violations and are not consistent with Turkey’s obligations under international law,” the statement added.

It has also called on Turkey’s Western partners, the U.S. and the EU, to publicly condemn human right violations in Turkey.

The statement, in a detailed fashion, elaborated on the dismal state of media, given the fact that 130 journalists are behind bars as of Oct. 19, and 2,300 journalists and media workers have been left without a job after government shutdown of more than 150 media outlets since the July 15 coup.

The detainees have been denied to access to choose their lawyer under pressure of authorities, have limited right for visits by relatives and endure tremendous difficulties in dire conditions of detention centers.

Source: Turkey Times , October 20, 2016


Related News

Erdoğan using hate speech against Gülen movement, says MEP

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s accusations against a faith-based movement led by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen amidst a corruption scandal are both uncalled for and amount to “a kind of hate speech” that has the risk of sparking violence against the group, a senior member of the European Parliament has said.

GYV’s dialogue center not returned despite court order

Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV) officials were forced to leave its affiliate Intercultural Dialogue Center (KADIM) office in the Eyüp district of İstanbul despite a court order ruling that GYV could return to the premises after the dialogue center was unlawfully evacuated by municipal police on Dec. 26, 2014.

2017 model bigotry: Defamation of Jews and Gulen movement in Turkey

Let me just remind you of some examples of the anti-Semitic discourse and hate speech in the Turkish media from the State Department’s report. “In December Forestry Minister Veysel Eroğlu said that Fethullah Gülen will end up dying in the U.S. and be buried in a Jewish cemetery.”

US-based think tank says Gülen movement progressive in terms of pro-Kurdish reforms

A US-based think tank has released a report stating that the Gülen (Hizmet) movement, a grassroots civil society organization that has frequently accused government officials of obstructing the settlement negotiations between the government and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), has a progressive attitude regarding pro-Kurdish reforms.

Chorepiscopus Yusuf Sag: Fethullah Gulen’s service is admirable

Chorepiscopus Yusuf Sag, Vicar General and leader of the Syriac Catholic Church in Turkey: “I wish every country had its own Fethullah Gulen. I watched the students performing at the recent Turkish Olympiads in admiration. They all sang in Turkish like angels. I have to ask: Is it better that they sing Turkish songs or hold guns in their hands?”

New York Times Editorial Board: Turkey’s Relentless Attack on the Press

The family that owns Dogan Holding has long been influential in Turkey’s secular establishment and ran afoul of Mr. Erdogan’s Islamist-based A.K.P. Party in 2009. With the company targeted again and fearful of losing more assets, the newspaper Hurriyet is widely seen as pulling punches to appease Mr. Erdogan by firing journalists and quashing even mildly critical news stories.

Latest News

Fethullah Gulen – man of education, peace and dialogue – passes away

Fethullah Gülen’s Condolence Message for South African Human Rights Defender Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Hizmet Movement Declares Core Values with Unified Voice

Ankara systematically tortures supporters of Gülen movement, Kurds, Turkey Tribunal rapporteurs say

Erdogan possessed by Pharaoh, Herod, Hitler spirits?

Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case

A “Controlled Coup”: Erdogan’s Contribution to the Autocrats’ Playbook

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?

Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis

In Case You Missed It

Lawyer: Female journalist traumatized by abuse, torture at Turkish police station

Symposium concludes: Hizmet (Gulen) Movement Contributes to World Peace

A dirty war in the run-up to the elections

Judge suffering cancer jailed in Kocaeli, wife under detention in Tokat

Turkish Schools Discussed at Johns Hopkins University

Art exhibition tells story of deficiency

Turkey seizes another baklava maker over coup charges, appoints deputy governor as caretaker

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News