JOINT STATEMENTS

The detention of Mehmet Sıddık Akış, the mayor of Hakkari, earlier this week (June 3, 2024) and the appointment of a trustee to the DEM Party-affiliated municipality is a grave interference with democratic values, the exercise of constitutional political rights and the will to live together. It is a fundamental …

STATEMENT FOR PRESS AND GENERAL PUBLIC Sezgin Tanrıkulu is not alone! September 11, 2023 We know Sezgin Tanrıkulu, MP for Diyarbakır, as a human rights defender, lawyer, and civil society representative. As civil society organizations, we consider his being an MP with these qualities and some of the work he …

On 20 July 2022 as a result of lethal artillery fire in Zakho district of the province of Dohuk within the boundaries of Iraqi Federal Kurdistan Region, 9 civilians including 2 children were killed and at least 22 people were injured. We deeply deplore the incident, remember the lost souls …

Taner Kılıç who was detained early in the morning on 6 June 2017 was arrested on 9 June 2017 late in the night at about 23.30. Since the arrest decision is a clear violation of the right to liberty and security of the person, human rights defenders and civil society …

OPEN LETTER to the Bureau of the Turkish Grand National Assembly From the Human Rights Organisations  13 October 2016   Distinguished Speaker, We write you this letter with reference to the statement of 1 October 2016 made by AK Party Deputy and Chairperson of TGNA Prisons Sub-Committee Mr Mehmet Metiner …

Taken under custody on 11 August 2016, Muzaffer Şakar –executive of Democrat Judiciary Association and one of the judges at Diyarbakır Court House– is a human rights defender well-known to all institutions and bodies dealing with human rights issues and well-respected due to his work on human rights and specifically …

Deputy PM and gov’t spokesperson Numan Kurtulmuş has shared with the press the cabinet decree on the establishment of the “Human Rights and Equality Institution of Turkey”, an issue on the agenda of the cabinet during its 11 January 2016 meeting. Noting that the institution was taken up in the …

With the interruption of the peace talks, the government of Turkey started, in mid-August, to implement a security policy that unlawfully restricts fundamental rights and freedoms in those cities and towns largely populated by Kurds. Since August 2015, long-term and consecutive curfews have been declared in the provinces of, and …