Intorduction
The May 2023 re-election of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the victory of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in parliamentary elections consolidated his authoritarian rule in Turkey and increased pressure on perceived critics and political opponents. The increasing repression of the Kurdish political movement, the crackdown on the Hizmet Movement, new methods of transnational repression, the arrest of journalists and deteriorating press freedom, the spread of hate speech and hate crimes targeting ethnic and religious minorities and refugees, systematic torture and ill-treatment and an increase in rights violations against women were the defining topics of this year as in previous years.
Turkey was ranked 117th among 140 countries in the rule of law index published by the World Justice Project in October. The country ranked 137th in terms of constraints on government powers and 133rd in terms of fundamental rights. Turkey was last in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia group, ranking worse than Russia, in the overall index score, fundamental rights and civil justice. In the global ranking, Turkey came after Angola and Mexico and above Guinea and Honduras.
According to the 2023 statistics announced by Síofra O’Leary, president of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), Turkey topped the list of countries with cases awaiting judgment with 23,397 applications, corresponding to 34.2 percent of the total. It was followed by the Russian Federation, with 12,453 applications; Ukraine (8,737); Romania (4,171); and Italy, with 2,743 applications pending. Complaints related to arrests, prosecutions and dismissals in the public sector following a coup attempt in July, 2016 made up half the applications against Turkey.
A law firm and two nongovernmental organizations advocating human rights and the rule of law sent a communication to the International Criminal Court (ICC) seeking the launch of an investigation into the Turkish government due to crimes allegedly committed by government officials against opponents.
In addition, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) concluded that the arrest and detention of an individual with alleged ties to the faith-based Hizmet Movement (a.k.a Gulen Movement) was arbitrary and said such cases may constitute crimes against humanity. According to figures released by Turkish Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunc, a total of 122,632 people have been jailed over alleged links to the movement since 2016 and 15,539 are still behind bars as part of the crackdown on the group.
The Grand Chamber of the ECtHR ruled in late September that Turkish courts’ conviction of Yuksel Yalcınkaya, a teacher, of terrorism due to activities such as the use of a mobile phone application or having an account at a certain bank was unlawful, in a decision that could have far-reaching implications for thousands facing similar charges in Turkey. The court faulted Turkey due to violations of three articles of the Convention on Human Rights: Article 6, which concerns the right to a fair trial; Article 7 on no punishment without law; and Article 11 on freedom of assembly and association.
According to Freedom House, Turkey remained “not free” with a score of 30/100 in 2023. The right group’s yearly report revealed that Turkey has steadily declined over the past decade and referred to Turkey’s new “disinformation law” as contributing to the declining internet freedoms in the country. Jack Dorsey, co-founder of the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, revealed in a YouTube interview that Turkey had constantly threatened to shut down the platform unless it complied with orders to restrict accounts.
In its 2023 Report on Turkey, the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, said there were “serious deficiencies” in the functioning of Turkey’s democratic institutions, underlining continuing democratic backsliding and structural deficiencies in the presidential system. The country’s constitutional architecture kept powers centralized at the level of the presidency, failing to ensure a sound and effective separation of powers between the executive, the legislature and the judiciary, the EU report stated.
In June the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in its first resolution condemning all forms of transnational repression as a growing threat to the rule of law and human rights revealed the tactics of countries including Turkey to suppress their critics abroad. According to the resolution, the Turkish government’s tactics rely on “renditions, abuse of extradition proceedings, Interpol Red Notices, anti-terror financing measures, and co-opting other States to deport or transfer persons unlawfully.”
Turkish courts continued to systematically accept bogus indictments, convicting without compelling evidence of criminal activity individuals and groups the Erdoğan government regarded as political opponents. Among them were journalists, opposition politicians, activists and human rights defenders.
Turkey was among the top jailers of journalists in the 2023 prison census of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), and a global leader in terms of legal harassment of female journalists in a report released by the Coalition for Women in Journalism (CFWIJ). Media outlets critical of the government were frequently sanctioned over political comments made on the air or news coverage that deviated from the official narrative. Not surprisingly, Turkey fell dramatically in the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) 2023 World Press Freedom Index, slipping 16 places and ranking 165th among 180 countries, not far from North Korea, which occupies the bottom of the list.
Dozens of people were mistreated by security officers in provinces of southern Turkey that were hit by devastating earthquakes in early February, and three inmates died in post-quake prison riots. According to local reports, an individual was beaten to death by members of the Altınuzu gendarmerie unit in Hatay province.
President Erdogan, his far-right ally Devlet Bahceli and other government officials adopted an ultranationalist rhetoric that equated Kurdish political dissent and assertive expression of Kurdish identity to terrorism, while some segments of the opposition fueled a growing anti-migrant sentiment among the public, jeopardizing the safety of the country’s sizeable refugee community.
Turkey’s religious minorities continued their legal struggle for property rights, while the LGBT community became the target of the ruling party and its allies, who used them as a talking point in an effort to consolidate their voter base during the general election in May. The authorities also imposed restrictions on Pride Week events in June, citing “protection of the family.”
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