Turkey: Alarming Deterioration of Rights – Coup Attempt No Justification for Crackdown on Peaceful Critics

Riot police use tear gas to disperse protesting employees and supporters of Zaman newspaper in front of its headquarters in Istanbul, Turkey, early March 5, 2016. REUTERS photo
Riot police use tear gas to disperse protesting employees and supporters of Zaman newspaper in front of its headquarters in Istanbul, Turkey, early March 5, 2016. REUTERS photo


Date posted: January 12, 2017

Human Rights Watch Report

(Istanbul) –Turkey’s president and government instrumentalized the violent military coup attempt of July 2016 to crack down on human rights and dismantle basic democratic safeguards, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2017.

In the last six months of the year, the government carried out mass arrests of journalists, closed multiple media outlets, and jailed elected opposition politicians. It dismissed or detained without due process over 100,000 civil servants including teachers, judges and prosecutors, suspended hundreds of nongovernmental groups, and consolidated government control over the courts.

“Instead of building on the cross-party unity opposed to the coup to strengthen democracy, Turkey’s government has opted for a ruthless crackdown on critics and opponents,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “With hundreds of thousands of people dismissed or detained without due process, an independent media silenced and Kurdish opposition members of parliament in jail, Turkey has been plunged into its worst crisis in a generation.”

In the 687-page World Report, its 27th edition, Human Rights Watch reviews human rights practices in more than 90 countries. In his introductory essay, Executive Director Kenneth Roth writes that a new generation of authoritarian populists seeks to overturn the concept of human rights protections, treating rights as an impediment to the majority will. For those who feel left behind by the global economy and increasingly fear violent crime, civil society groups, the media, and the public have key roles to play in reaffirming the values on which rights-respecting democracy has been built.

The attempted coup left at least 241 citizens and government law enforcement officers dead. The coup plotters used fighter jets to bomb Turkey’s parliament. In the aftermath, the government declared a state of emergency, jailed thousands of soldiers, and embarked on a wholesale purge of public officials, police, teachers, judges and prosecutors. The government misused terrorism laws against followers of the US-based cleric Fethullah Gülen, whom the government accuses of masterminding the July coup attempt, The mass arrests and removal of safeguards against detainee abuse led to rising reports of torture and other ill-treatment in custody.

The escalating conflict in the predominantly Kurdish southeast of Turkey during 2016 also led to serious and widespread human rights violations in the region followed by a harsh crackdown on the Kurdish political movement and the jailing of thousands of Kurdish activists, among them democratically elected members of parliament and mayors. In 2016 repeated bombings in Turkey’s major cities by individuals with alleged affiliations to the extremist group ISIS or the Kurdish militant group TAK led to hundreds of deaths.

Turkey also continued to host 2.7 million refugees from Syria while entering an agreement with the EU to accept forcible returns of refugees who had crossed into Greece. Reports also persisted throughout the year of Turkish border guards pushing back refugees at the Syrian border and shooting at several refugees seeking to cross to safety in Turkey.

Source: Human Rights Watch , January 12, 2017


Related News

The International Justice Conference Hailed A Major Success

Prof. Manuel A. Knoll, from Department of Philosophy, Fatih University in partnership with the support of Abant Platform organized an international three day event regarding pluralism and conflict. Over 50 academicians from around the world got together for ‘Distributive Justice Beyond Rawls and Consensus’ Conference in Fatih University, Istanbul on June 6-8, 2013. Conference was […]

Approval rate of Turkish schools abroad at 78 percent

Research company Veritas conducted a survey in July 2013 with 4,296 people in face-to-face interviews in 42 provinces in an effort to measure the approval rate of the Turkish Olympiads that are organized annually.
Accordingly, 67 percent of the respondents expressed a positive opinion of these language olympiads while only 8 percent expressed a negative view.

Woman gave birth while in detention, handcuffed to bed by police

A Turkish woman who was arrested when she was eight months pregnant has recently been released after giving birth while incarcerated. Turkeypurge.com reached out to the victim, who spoke about her experiences under arrest. She preferred not to reveal her identity due to concerns over Turkey’s socio-political environment.

Islamic scholar Gülen files libel case against PM Erdoğan

Gülen’s lawyer Nurullah Albayrak said on Monday that Erdoğan moved beyond borders of freedom of expression and used excessively harsh insults against the Islamic scholar. Gülen is demanding TL 100,000 in compensation for the allegedly denigrating remarks.

Who staged a coup against whom on Dec. 17?

When its involvement in corruption and bribery became public, and that this seemed like the tip of an iceberg, the government thought that it must cover up the subsequent investigation, fearing that yet more investigations would be started — and so crushed the police force and the judiciary like a steamroller.

State discrimination against Hizmet movement sympathizers

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government is aiming to take all steps to finish off Hizmet movement sympathizers by any means. Discrimination is one of these steps. Discrimination is a human rights violation. I would like to share five of my personal experiences, of many more, to show what kind of discrimination is being committed against the movement’s sympathizers.

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

White House courts int’l students as language festival concludes in DC

Civil death: Amnesty report on social upheaval caused by Turkey’s purge of public servants

Erdogan Uses Coup Like Hitler Used Reichstag Fire, Austrian Far-right Leader Says

Foreign Policy Magazine Interviewed Fethullah Gulen

Pro-Erdoğan journalists call for assassination of Gülen followers abroad

Gulen named author of the month in Casablanca

We’ll kiss the hands of those who tell us our shortcomings

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News