Amnesty International Reports

Turkey: Amnesty International’s Brief on the Human Rights Situation – “Turkey’s State of Emergency Ended but the Crackdown on Human Rights Continues.”

February 2019 / (8 Pages)

After two years of rapid deterioration in the human rights situation, Turkey’s state of emergency finally ended on 18 July 2018. This long overdue and welcome news, however, was not accompanied by concrete steps to normalize the human rights situation in the country. Instead, many of the measures introduced during the state of emergency remain in force today and continue to have a profound and devastating impact on public life in Turkey.

The state of emergency was used to consolidate draconian government powers to silence critical voices and strip away fundamental rights and freedoms. Far from being reversed, many of these measures have continued unabated since the end of the state of emergency Read More

Purged beyond return? No remedy for Turkey’s dismissed public sector workers

October 2018 / (30 Pages)

On the evening of 15 July 2016, elements within Turkey’s armed forces attempted a violent coup. The coup attempt was quickly thwarted as thousands of people took to the streets and state forces overpowered the coup plotters. Hundreds died, and thousands were injured in a night of terrible violence. The government declared a state of emergency soon afterwards on 20 July 2016 with the stated aim of countering threats to national security arising from the coup attempt. While the state of emergency was initially declared for three months, it would be renewed seven times, and its remit broadened to include combatting ‘terrorist’ organizations. The state of emergency finally ended on 18 July 2018, two years after it was first announced, having ushered in a period of tremendous upheaval in Turkish public life Read More

Dönüşü olmayan ihraçlar? Türkiye’de kamudan ihraç edilenler için etkin çözüm yok.

Ekim 2018 / (35 Pages)

15 Temmuz 2016 akşamı Türk Silahlı Kuvvetleri içerisindeki bazı unsurlar şiddet içeren bir darbe girişiminde bulundular. Bu girişim, binlerce kişinin sokaklara dökülmesi ve devlet güçlerinin darbeye teşebbüs edenleri etkisiz hale getirmesi sayesinde hızla püskürtüldü. Yaşanan şiddet dolu gecenin sonunda yüzlerce insan hayatını kaybetti ve binlercesi de yaralandı. Hükümet, kısa bir süre içinde, 20 Temmuz 2016’da darbe girişiminden kaynaklanan ve ulusal güvenliği hedef alan tehditlere karşı koyabilme gerekçesiyle olağanüstü hal ilan etti. Olağanüstü hal, başlangıçta üç ay süreliğine ilan edilmiş olsa da, ilerleyen tarihlerde yedi kez daha uzatıldı ve kapsamı terör örgütleriyle mücadeleyi de içerecek şekilde genişletildi. Türkiye’de kamusal hayatta muazzam bir altüst oluş dönemini başlatan olağanüstü hal, ilan edilmesinin ardından geçen iki seneden sonra nihayet 18 Temmuz 2018 tarihinde sona erdi Read More

Turkey: no end in sight: purged public sector workers denied a future in Turkey

May 2017 / (23 Pages)

This report focuses on the dismissal of public servants, among them police officers, teachers, soldiers, doctors, judges, prosecutors and academics, by executive decree issued under the powers of the state of emergency in Turkey, which continues 10 months after it was first introduced. The mass dismissals have been carried out arbitrarily on the basis of vague and generalized grounds of “connections to terrorist organizations”. Dismissed public sector workers have not been given reasons for their dismissal nor do they have an effective means to challenge the decisions Read More

Turkey: journalism is not a crime: crackdown on media freedom in Turkey

May 2017 / (16 Pages)

Since the failed coup attempt in July 2016, at least 156 media outlets have been shut down and an estimated 2,500 journalists and other media workers have lost their jobs. Journalists have been arrested and charged with terrorism offences as a result of posts they have shared on Twitter, cartoons they have drawn or opinions they expressed. This is taking place within the context of a wider crackdown against perceived government critics which has seen 47,000 people remanded in prison and more than 100,000 public sector employees summarily dismissed Read More

Turkey: displaced and dispossessed: Sur residents’ right to return home

December 2016 / (31 Pages)

Amid the crackdown on opposition Kurdish voices by the Turkish government, this report focuses on the forced displacement of residents of Sur in Diyarbakır, southeast Turkey’s most populous city. Displaced and dispossessed of their homes, around 24,000 former residents of Sur are unable to return one year after the outbreak of heavy clashes in the district and other towns across the southeast of the country Read More