Washington says Erdogan’s regime has committed grave human rights violations

The US State Department has affirmed that the Turkish regime is committing dangerous violations of human rights in Turkey.

In its annual report on the Turkish regime’s human rights violations in 2019, the State Department said that “these violations include forgery in the presidential and municipal elections in addition to huge abuses against opposition figures, journalists, media outlets and others institutions,” pointing out that the mechanisms of investigation and punishment over violations and corruption within the Turkish security bodies are still not enough

The report pointed to the Turkish regime’s restrictions on basic freedoms and its violations of laws.

Since the failed coup attempt in 2016,Turkey has dismissed more than 45 policemen and military personnel as well as more than 130,000 state employees. Also it has arrested at least 80,000 citizens and closed more than 1500 non government organizations under different weak pretexts.

  The U.S. State Department’s 2019 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices on Turkey said that “significant human rights issues included: reports of arbitrary killings; suspicious deaths of persons in custody; forced disappearances; torture; arbitrary arrest and detention of tens of thousands of persons, including former opposition members of parliament, lawyers, journalists and foreign citizens.”

The report also said that Turkey engaged in a worldwide effort to detain people suspected of having links to the Gulen movement, which Ankara accuses of masterminding the failed coup attempt.

Hamda Mustafa