RIGHTS
US State Department highlights ‘significant human rights issues’ in Turkey
Kurds, refugees, women and minorities all face severe rights abuses in Turkey, the US State Department finds, while Turkish-occupied regions of Syria are also the site of abuses aimed at displacing the Kurdish population. The [...]
DFG and MKG: Journalism is not a crime, release the journalists
DFG and MKG reacted to the detention of 2 journalists during house raids in Amed and called on all professional organisations and colleagues to stand in solidarity to protect journalism. Dicle Fırat Journalists Association (DFG) [...]
Lawyers file another application to visit Öcalan in Imralı
Lawyers from the Istanbul-based Asrın Law Office filed another application to meet with their clients in Imralı Island Prison, who have not been heard from for 38 months. Asrin Law Office lawyers İbrahim Bilmez, Emran [...]
TEV-DEM calls for participation in May Day demonstrations to demand freedom for Öcalan
In its message on 1 May International Workers' Day, TEV-DEM said: "On this historic day, let us once again shout for the physical freedom of the Leader Abdullah Öcalan." In a written message, the Democratic [...]
62 violations of rights against 128 journalists and press organisations recorded in KRI in 2023
Kurdistan Journalists' Syndicate announced that 128 journalists and press organisations were subjected to rights violations during 2023. In a press statement at its offices in Hewlêr (Erbil), the Kurdistan Journalists' Syndicate announced its annual report [...]
Government language fuels violence against women: Turkey’s human rights association co-chair
In response to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's statement that the withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention had no impact on the fight against violence towards women, Eren Keskin, co-chair of the Human Rights Association (İHD), [...]
Saki: The AKP-MHP regime isolates everyone who doesn’t agree with it
Istanbul HEDEP MP Özgül Saki described the isolation on Imrali as an expression of Turkish state policy. “It started on the prison island, but now everyone who doesn't fit into the image of the regime [...]
Lawyers apply to visit Öcalan
Lawyers from the Asrın Law Office applied to Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor's Office and Imralı Prison Directorate with a request to meet with their client, Abdullah Öcalan, who has not been heard from for 31 [...]
Reports reveal extensive human rights abuses in Ras al-Ayn, Tell Abyad under Turkish control
New findings by Synergy Association for Victims and North Press Agency expose four years of dire human rights abuses in northern Syria's Ras al-Ayn (Serê Kaniyê) and Tell Abyad since Turkey took control of the [...]
9 October 1998: The day the international conspiracy began
In 1998, amid a unilateral ceasefire, Turkey, assisted by NATO, threatened Syria with war, forcing Abdullah Öcalan to leave the country on 9 October the same year. That day, the international conspiracy began. Amid [...]
Turkey’s world-wide targeting of journalists
In terms of press freedom, RSF rank Turkey 149th out of over 180 countries. By some accounts, a third of all journalists jailed globally are in Turkey, many of them Kurds. Such maltreatment is to [...]
SGDF: Prison won’t break young people
After their release, the co-chairs of the socialist youth association SGDF in Turkey, Okan Danacı and Yaren Tuncer, spoke about their experiences in prison and said that their fight would increased. As many reports [...]
ÖHD lawyers call on Turkish government to adhere to its own and international laws
The legal association ÖHD called on the Turkish government to adhere to its own laws and international regulations and to end the illegal isolation of Abdullah Öcalan and his three fellow prisoners. The legal [...]
Turkey’s human rights violations: leading watchdog releases annual report
A recently published annual report by the Human Rights Association (İHD) reveals extensive human rights violations in Turkey, including extrajudicial killings, violence against women, restrictions on freedom of expression, and abuses within the country's penal [...]
Iraqi Kurdistan’s press freedom under scrutiny as US Consulate sounds warning
The escalation of challenges to press freedom in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, including arbitrary arrests, has been raised by the US Consulate General in Erbil (Hewlêr). The United States Consulate General in Erbil (Hewlêr) [...]
Mehmet Dizin taken into extradition custody in Italy
On trumped-up charges by the Turkish authorities, Mehmet Dizin, who has lived in Germany since 1980, was detained while on holiday in Italy and is now in extradition custody to Turkey. The Turkish state [...]
Karasu: The history of humanity is the struggle of women
Mustafa Karasu spoke about the first year anniversary of the 'Jin, Jiyan, Azadî' uprisings in East Kurdistan and Iran and said that the most valuable struggle in the world and in the history of humanity [...]
Human rights violations rampant in Turkish prisons: rights watchdog
Human Rights Association (İHD), a prominent rights watchdog in Turkey, has released a damning report highlighting widespread rights violations in Turkish prisons in 2022. The report, based on applications received by the İHD, prison reports, [...]
Press conference to demand action to ensure security and well-being of Abdullah Ocalan
More than 40 trade unions, political parties, legal, political and civil society experts, and others will demand action to ensure the security and well-being of jailed Kurdish political leader Mr. Abdullah Ocalan. More than 40 [...]
New “disciplinary penalty” given to Abdullah Öcalan
Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan was given a new “disciplinary penalty”. An application was made to the Bursa Execution Judge on 10 July with a request to allow a family visit for Kurdish People's Leader [...]
100 Years of Occupation – 100 years of Silence
By signing the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 Turkey destroyed all hope for the Kurds of the right to self-determination and the establishment of the independent state they dreamed of. Foreign powers, not least Turkey [...]
Reporters Without Borders raises alarm as trial starts for pro-Kurdish journalists in Turkey
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has called for the Kurdish journalists’ immediate release and an end to “the manipulation of anti-terrorist legislation by the Turkish judicial authorities”. 18 journalists from pro-Kurdish media in Turkey are appearing [...]
Turkey systematically violates anti-torture convention, says pro-Kurdish HDP
On 26 June, the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) accused Turkey of systematically violating the UN Convention against Torture. Citing statistics from the Ministry of Justice [...]
Imprisoned Kurdish women’s rights activist denied healthcare in Iran, Amnesty launches petition
The Iranian authorities are denying imprisoned Kurdish women's rights activist Zeynab Jalalian access to health care, Amnesty International reported, launching a petition calling for her release. Imprisoned Kurdish women’s rights activist Zeynab Jalalian is being [...]
Inmates on hunger strike stand against abuse in Turkish prison
Six prisoners in a prison in Turkey’s central province of Kırıkkale have been on hunger strike for 13 days protesting against human rights violations and psychological pressures inflicted by the prison administration. Baran Gül, one of the [...]