HUMAN RIGHTS AND TURKEY

Amnesty International’s Blind Spot on Purge Victims in Turkey

Despite its previous meticulous reporting on human rights violations in Turkey, Amnesty recently took a pass on the most vulnerable faction: purge victims.

Abdullah Ayasun
5 min readMay 15, 2024

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Veteran journalist and former lawmaker Nazli Ilicak is taken to prison in this archived photo.

As spring moves forward, key international watchdogs wrap up their annual work by surveying the political currents of the day before the onset of summer. Human rights organizations globally are particularly vigilant. On 24 April 2024, Amnesty International issued its 2023/24 report. While taking stock of the events worldwide, it also provides detailed insights into individual countries. In its latest report, the organization presents a scathing human rights record of Turkey, chronicling the woeful state of liberties and democracy.

While Amnesty’s previous reports meticulously chronicled the unraveling of the once-inspiring Turkish model and its disastrous impact on human rights, its latest report glaringly omits the victims who have endured the brunt of authoritarian repression over the last decade.

“Baseless investigations, prosecutions and convictions of human rights defenders, journalists, opposition politicians and others persisted. Anti-terror and disinformation laws…

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Abdullah Ayasun

Boston-based journalist and writer. Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. On art, culture, politics and everything in between. X: @abyasun