The New York-based Human Rights Foundation (HRF) on Tuesday published a full-page ad in The Washington Times for the visit of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to the US saying, “You are not welcome.”
Underlining that although Turkey was once a democracy, it has entered a downward spiral into dictatorship, HRF said President Erdoğan is to blame for the shuttering of 149 media outlets, the closing of 2,099 schools and universities, the firing of more than 138,000 civil servants, the jailing of over 50,000 government critics and the arrest of some 230 journalists.
HRF also tweeted that “President @realDonaldTrump should tell @RT_Erdogan and @serdarkilic9 [Turkey’s ambassador to the US, Serdar Kılıç] that dictators are NOT welcome in America. #ErdoganOut.”