The Stockholm Center for Freedom (SCF) today released its latest report, “Family Punishment in Turkey: How Erdoğan’s Uses the Nazi Practice of Sippenhaft,” a study that focuses on how the Turkish government, under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has used family punishment against his opponents.
Sippenhaft, also known as family punishment or kin punishment, is a legal concept describing practices observed in authoritarian regimes, where family members are held accountable for the offenses committed by one of their relatives. Originating from a Middle Ages practice that was revived by the Nazis, this concept has been applied in various forms throughout history across different societies.
Traditionally, family punishment was employed as a means of extending punishment beyond the responsible individual to encompass their immediate family members, including parents, spouses, siblings and children. The underlying rationale behind this practice was to establish a strong deterrent by penalizing the “offender’s” family, thereby dissuading others from engaging in similar conduct.
In today’s world, family punishment continues to be employed by authoritarian regimes seeking to suppress dissent and maintain control.
Family punishment has also been utilized in Turkey under President Erdoğan since an abortive coup on July 15, 2016. As part of a broader scheme of guilt by association, in some cases family punishment has been used to blackmail individuals residing outside of Turkey into returning to the country, in others to prevent family members of dissidents from holding public office, and in yet others simply to seek vengeance.
This report examines the concept of family punishment by exploring its legal and practical dimensions, the political developments in Turkey that have precipitated its implementation and its current use by the Erdoğan government, including various documented cases
These cases include the imprisonment of spouses of police chiefs involved in anti-corruption operations that involved members of Erdoğan’s government and his family members; the jailing of the fathers of former NBA center Enes Kanter Freedom and former football star Hakan Şükür; the imprisonment of the spouse of exiled journalist Bülent Korucu; the revocation of passports of family members associated with dissident groups labeled as terrorist organizations, such as the wife of exiled Turkish journalist Can Dündar, who exposed illegal arms transfers to Syria by Turkish intelligence; and the confiscation of properties belonging to individuals accused of terrorism.
This report is part of SCF’s efforts aimed at demonstrating the breadth and depth of the collapse of the rule of law in Turkey. In addition to its ongoing coverage of human rights violations, SCF’s previous work in this area includes its 2022 report titled “Rule of Law(lessness) in Erdoğan’s Turkey: Violation of the principle of legality and no punishment without law in post-coup trials”; its 2021 report “Turkey’s Judicial Council: Guarantor or Annihilator of Judicial Independence”; and its 2017 reports “Erdoğan’s Rule by Royal Decree: Turkey’s Contempt for the Rule of Law” and “Turkey’s Descent into Arbitrariness: The End of the Rule of Law.”
About the Stockholm Center for Freedom
SCF is a non-profit advocacy organization that promotes the rule of law, democracy and human rights with a special focus on Turkey.
Committed to serving as a reference source by providing a broad perspective on rights violations in Turkey, SCF monitors daily developments, documents individual cases of the infringement of fundamental rights and publishes comprehensive reports on human rights issues.
SCF is a member of the Alliance Against Genocide, an international coalition working to exert pressure on the UN, regional organizations and national governments to act on early warning signs and take action to prevent genocide.