Ottoman violations: Erdogan turns a blind eye to human rights, criticizes European countries

Mustafa Kamel

Led by its alleged Ottoman sultan, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish state remains at the top of the list of countries whose people are subjected to flagrant violations of human rights in all fields, especially security repression, as it has become the fourth in terms of the number of violations files, as Erdogan disregards matters carried out by his security forces at home and in his speeches he criticizes European countries in an attempt to distance suspicions from himself.

According to statistics from the European Court of Human Rights during the middle of last year, Erdogan’s Turkey ranked fourth in the amount a violations, exceeding the previous years by more than 20%. At the forefront was Ankara’s violation of the tenth article of the European Convention on Human Rights to protect freedom of thought and expression of opinion.

Fallacious speech and attrition of students

During a recent speech broadcast by Turkish official television, Erdogan sought to criticize the police forces in a number of European countries, forgetting what his country’s police are doing to his own citizens. “We saw how the police in the Netherlands and Paris would drop men and women. If the Turkish police did, the world would have stood up and caused an international stir,” he said.

Immediately after Erdogan’s speech, the Turkish police attacked the students of Istanbul University after their protests against the decision to impose an increase in food fees, as the police cordoned off the demonstrators, beat them, and arrested several of them after they gathered in front of the university to demand the decision be rescinded.

Many student demonstrations took place against the Turkish attack on Afrin, so the police then detained a number of students because of their peaceful protests on the university campus, where they carried banners criticizing Erdogan. At least 18 students were held in custody because of these protests, and many more have been tried on charges such as spreading terrorist propaganda and insulting the president.

Freedom of expression gone in the wind

Freedom of expression within Turkish society has become news, as suppression of journalists, writers and analysts has become one of the means used by the Turkish authorities to shut the mouths of Erdogan’s critics. Most media lack independence and support the political line of the government, where Turkey ranks first globally in the imprisonment of journalists, as there are more than 175 journalists in pretrial detention and inside Turkish prisons on terrorist charges, in addition to the presence of hundreds in front of the courts.

The past months have seen about 200 people die in suspicious conditions, including from torture, illness, and poor prison conditions, according to reports published by international organizations, including Amnesty International, while tens of thousands have fled abroad.

In February 2019, writers and analysts Ahmet Altan, Mehmet Altan and Nazlı Ilıcak were sentenced to life imprisonment on trumped-up charges related to the alleged coup. The court issued a ruling to release Mehmet Altan on bail in June of the same year following a ruling by the Constitutional Court and another by the European Court of Human Rights, but Ahmet Altan and Nazlı Ilıcak are still in prison. The Court of Cassation confirmed all convictions in early October 2019.

Kurdish media was the target of the Turkish authorities’ violations due to its opposition to the Ottoman sultan. Police repeatedly arrested journalists working for Kurdish media in Turkey, and Turkish police stormed the pro-Kurdish newspaper Free Democracy in March 2019, arrested a number of journalists, transferred the newspaper’s assets to the state, and closed it in July of the same year. Approximately 14 journalists were referred for separate trials, and a number of journalists working for the opposition Turkish newspaper Zaman were sentenced in July 2019 to 8-10 years in prison on terrorism charges.

Fake coup a means to oppression

On the pretext of being involved in the attempted coup that took place in Turkey on July 15, 2016, the security authorities have used their brutality to arrest a large number of civilians and military personnel in a number of public and private sectors of the state for their loyalty to the group of Turkish cleric Fetullah Gulen, who currently lives in exile in the United States.

During the past year, Turkish courts issued a barrage of politically motivated verdicts against journalists, relying on evidence that they wrote only non-violent reports, in addition to issuing allegations of links to terrorist organizations or attempting a coup.