The May 2023 re-election of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the victory of his Justice and Development Party (AKP) in parliamentary elections consolidated an authoritarian order in Turkey that routinely and arbitrarily punishes perceived critics and political opponents and exerts strong control over the media and courts, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in its World Report 2024 released on Thursday.

President Erdoğan secured a third term in office in the May 2023 general election, and his AKP-led People’s Alliance retained a majority of seats in parliament.

Erdoğan garnered 52.2 percent of the vote in the second round, defeating Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), backed by an alliance of opposition parties.

Erdoğan’s victory came despite criticism of the government’s response in the aftermath of two major earthquakes that rocked Turkey’s southeastern provinces on February 6, killing more than 50,000 people and injuring at least 100,000 while leaving hundreds of thousands homeless or displaced.

In addition to the earthquakes, Turkey grappled with a cost-of-living crisis marked by skyrocketing inflation, calculated at 65 percent year-on-year as of December. This economic challenge added to the criticism of Erdoğan’s AKP, which managed to win the elections despite the odds.

HRW pointed out that during the election year, the Erdoğan government maintained a tight grip on the media, prompting international election observers to criticize the biased media coverage favoring the ruling coalition. Public broadcasters, such as TRT, were accused of favoring the People’s Alliance.

Restrictions on freedom of assembly, association and expression hindered the participation of opposition figures, civil society and independent media in the electoral process, HRW said.

The report pointed to the government using divisive rhetoric during the election campaign, accusing the CHP of supporting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), while also highlighting that the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) entered the election under another name due to the threat of closure, with its former members facing imprisonment on terrorism charges.

The government-aligned broadcasting regulator, the Radio and Television High Council (RTÜK), imposed arbitrary fines on critical television channels such as Halk TV during the election period, HRW noted. Independent media in Turkey primarily operated through online platforms, but authorities regularly ordered the removal of critical content related to government officials and members of the judiciary, the report stated.

“Erdoğan’s victory at the polls was rapidly followed by power struggles in the judiciary and politicized decisions by courts, demonstrating the deep erosion of human rights and the rule of law in the country,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Türkiye’s human rights record in its centennial year included a muzzled media and political opponents routinely targeted and punished.”

According to the HRW report, journalists faced prosecution under Turkey’s Anti-Terror Law as well as criminal defamation charges, including “insulting the president,” a charge criticized by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). At the time of writing of the report in October, at least 43 journalists and media workers were in pretrial detention or serving prison sentences for terrorism-related offenses, HRW said, while adding that Kurdish journalists were disproportionately targeted, with prolonged periods of pretrial detention for some.

Crackdown on the Gülen movement

HRW said tens of thousands of people faced unfair trials on terrorism charges due to their alleged links to the Gülen movement, a faith-based group inspired by US-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen.

The group is deemed a terrorist organization by Ankara and accused of orchestrating a failed 2016 coup in the country. The movement denies any involvement in the coup or terrorist activities.

“Many have faced prolonged and arbitrary imprisonment with no effective remedy after mass removal from civil service jobs and the judiciary,” the HRW report said, underlining the plight of the people accused of being members of the group.

The justice minister announced in August that 15,050 people remained in prison over Gülen movement membership charges.

According to the HRW report, in 2023 Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) continued the practice of abducting individuals associated with the Gülen movement in collaboration with countries with weak rule of law frameworks.

The report noted two cases in July and September when Tajik authorities bypassed the legal extradition process in abducting Emsal Koç and Koray Vural before they were flown to Turkey, where they were put in pretrial detention.

Politicized courts

HRW said the provincial authorities in Turkey regularly banned protests and assemblies by government-critical groups, sometimes in defiance of domestic court rulings. Police used force to detain demonstrators, particularly those associated with leftist or Kurdish groups.

The report noted the ruling by Turkey’s top appeals court upholding the convictions of philanthropist businessman Osman Kavala and others for their alleged role in the 2013 İstanbul Gezi Park protests. According to HRW, the case highlighted the government’s political control over Turkey’s courts.

HRW noted the defiance of Turkey’s top appeals court of a Constitutional Court decision ordering human rights lawyer and recently elected lawmaker Can Atalay’s release, keeping him in prison.

The HRW report asserted that allegations of torture and ill-treatment had persisted in police custody and prisons since 2016, with few investigations and prosecutions of perpetrators. Reports of abuse during rescue efforts following the February earthquakes also raised concerns. Police ill-treatment was also directed at Syrian refugees, reflecting xenophobic motivations, the report said.

HRW also underscored Turkey’s intensified military campaign against the outlawed PKK in northern Iraq and northeast Syria in 2023, resulting in significant damage to critical infrastructure and disrupted water and electricity supplies for millions of people as well as the continuation of Turkey’s control over territories in northern Syria.

Refugees, women and LGBT rights

Turkey hosts the world’s largest refugee population, primarily Syrians under temporary protection.

However, non-European asylum seekers faced strict limitations on applying for international protection, with routine deportations, HRW said. Xenophobic sentiments were weaponized during the election campaign, particularly targeting Syrians and Afghans, the report noted.

Protection for women reporting domestic violence remained challenging, resulting in a high number of femicides in 2023, according to the report. The government used anti-LGBT hate speech in its political discourse, leading to bans on LGBT events and fines on digital platforms for content referring to LGBT people.

International actors v. Turkey in 2023

The European Union in September announced further financial support to Turkey for the most vulnerable Syrian refugees provided in return for restrictions on the entry of refugees and migrants to the EU, HRW stated, while noting that Turkey is still formally a candidate for EU accession, although the process is at a standstill.

The HRW report also mentioned the European Commission’s November enlargement report.

Concerning Turkey, the commission emphasized that there had been an ongoing decline in human and fundamental rights. It highlighted significant shortcomings in the functioning of Turkey’s democratic institutions and the unjustifiable advantage held by President Erdoğan in the presidential election.

The HRW report concluded by pointing to the landmark ruling by the ECtHR in September, (Yalçınkaya v. Türkiye) with implications for tens of thousands in Turkey persecuted for their alleged association with the Gülen movement.

The ECtHR found that the prosecution and conviction for “membership of a terrorist organization” mainly on the basis of having a mobile phone application called ByLock, allegedly used by Gülen movement members, constituted an arbitrary application of the law and violated the principle of legality. The judgment also found violations of the right to a fair trial and freedom of assembly and ruled that Turkey must take general measures to prevent thousands of similar cases from being brought before the ECtHR.