US Congressmen ask President Biden to put pressure on Türkiye

They demand an end to human rights violations and transnational repression.

Ricardo Sanchez Serra

More than 140 US congressmen (142 to be exact) have called on US President Joe Biden to put pressure on the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to respect the human rights of Turks and, in particular, to stop the repression of members of the Hizmet (Gülen) Movement, the most peaceful cultural and religious current of Islam.

Inexplicably, Erdoğan considers as his number one enemy a pacifist group dedicated to education, promoting values ​​and spiritual deepening, the Hizmet Movement – present in more than 170 countries – led by the Muslim scholar and preacher, Fethullah Gülen, whom we met last year in Pennsylvania, where he has lived since 1999, and we were able to experience the great spiritual force that he radiated. A good, spiritual man, a guide to good.

It is noteworthy that Gülen is one of the world’s most important Muslim thinkers and preachers, known for his decades-long commitment to interfaith tolerance and altruism. He has been repeatedly recognized as one of the most influential religious figures and public intellectuals. He has written more than 400 books, many of which have been translated into more than 33 languages.

The Turkish government (read Erdogan) was beside itself with a promise of $15 million to Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, to kidnap Gülen and take him to the Turkish prison island of Imrali. The plan was uncovered by former CIA director James Woolsey.

In addition, and in violation of the sovereignty of countries, agents of the Turkish intelligence service enter any nation looking for peaceful Turkish citizens – even those who have been in the country for many years – and kidnap them, taking them to Turkey, where they suffer the worst abuses and torture. The kidnappings took place in Kosovo, Malaysia, Myanmar, Moldova, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Gabon, among other states. Their own Minister of the Interior revealed this, without giving details of which states they were in. They failed in Mongolia, where these agents had drugged a Turk and on the way to the plane, the police intercepted them.

On the other hand, Erdogan is also appealing for extradition. Several countries have rejected his requests to extradite the peaceful Turks of the Hizmet Movement, such as Peru – in February 2023 – Germany, the USA, Great Britain, Panama, Brazil and Sweden, among others, due to lack of evidence and especially because human rights are violated in Turkey, there is no guarantee of a fair trial and there are accusations of torture.

We therefore urge the Peruvian government once again to reject Turkey’s request to sign an extradition agreement, given Turkey’s history of human rights violations, disrespect for freedoms, use of torture and lack of judicial independence. By signing it, peaceful citizens would be condemned to death.

The letter from the American legislators is very important, not only because of the number of those who signed it – and who outnumber similar letters on other international issues such as Gaza, the Armenian genocide, the closure of borders with Mexico, the sale of F-16s to Turkey, India, etc. – but also because it reveals the Turkish atrocities on its territory and abroad.

Below is the letter from U.S. Congressmen to President Biden:

Dear President Biden:

We are writing to draw your attention to the worrying human rights situation in Turkey, in particular the transnational crackdown orchestrated by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government against its critics abroad. We also highlight the alarming cases of abuses of Interpol bodies by Turkey, including the forced transfer of more than 100 citizens since the 2016 coup, with allegations of torture, denial of legal rights and coercion.

Erdogan’s government has sought to silence critics in the United States, such as NBA player and human rights advocate Enes Kanter Freedom, by targeting his family in Turkey and placing an Interpol red notice and bounty on him and many others.

This further underlines the need for urgent intervention to address Turkey’s failure to comply with international law and its systematic violations of human rights.

Prior to the adoption of sweeping anti-terrorism legislation in 2018, and continuing since its enactment, the Turkish government has violated human rights and compromised the rule of law. Since the 2016 coup attempt, tens of thousands of civil servants, administrative workers, police, military, judges, prosecutors and citizens have been dismissed, suspended, detained or imprisoned on terrorism-related grounds.

Government repression extends to media outlets, non-governmental organisations and opposition figures, severely restricting freedom of expression, freedom of the press and freedom of peaceful assembly. Over the past two decades, the Turkish government has cornered more than 90% of the media landscape, including direct control of the country’s public media and indirect control of much of the mainstream media through party-aligned oligarchs. Control of mainstream media has been backed up by a massive crackdown on independent media.

Gülen supporters and Kurdish journalists are disproportionately targeted in this crackdown, with lengthy pretrial detentions and frequent police raids on newspaper offices obstructing the important work of journalists. The so-called disinformation law has been used to stifle press freedom, including the murder of at least 20 journalists.

Turkish transnational repression has reached alarming levels, with reports of more than 100 Turkish citizens forcibly transferred to Turkey since the 2016 coup. Individuals associated with the Gulen movement, a faith-based civil society organization that promotes interfaith dialogue and education, have been among those mistreated.

The State Department’s 2022 country reports on human rights practices in Turkey highlight the government’s coordination with other authoritarian states in forcibly transferring people and engaging in abductions and renditions. Victims face torture, denial of legal assistance, human rights, and forced confessions before being deported to Turkey. Government-run media publicly promote and glorify these acts.

Selahattin Gulen, for example, a teacher, was kidnapped in Kenya; Koray Vural, a businessman, in Tajikistan. Orhan Inandi, the head of a successful network of schools, was kidnapped in Kyrgyzstan and tortured in prison, while Turkish media displayed his broken arm.

The Human Rights Association (İHD), which monitors the most serious victimization of prisoners, reports that 1,605 patients, 604 of them seriously ill, are fighting for their lives in prisons across Turkey. The Stockholm Centre for Freedoms and the Purge Museum reported that at least 81 prisoners died in Turkey in 2022.

Turkey’s pressure on other countries to close successful math and science academies affiliated with the Gulen movement is deeply worrying. The UN Special Rapporteur’s letter in 2020 condemned the systematic practice of state-sponsored extraterritorial abduction and forced return of Turkish citizens from multiple countries.

Victims are subjected to torture, pressure and humiliation before being deported, and the Turkish government does not deny or conceal these actions.

In 2023, Freedom House The database recorded 125 incidents of transnational repression committed by 25 governments. Its database now includes 1,034 direct, physical cases of transnational repression in 100 countries, carried out by 44 governments since 2014, including Turkey as both a host and home country. Journalists based in the United States have faced bank account closures and repercussions due to unfounded accusations of terrorism by the Turkish government. The recent decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on Selahattin Demirtas, Osman Kavala and Yuksel Yalcinkaya underscore the urgency of addressing Turkey’s failure to comply with international law.

The ECtHR ruled that the prolonged detention of Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtas and philanthropist Osman Kavala was politically motivated and lacked reasonable suspicion. The ECtHR also ruled that Turkey had violated the right to liberty and security, freedom of expression and the right to a fair trial in the case of Professor Yalcinkaya. These decisions highlight the systematic nature of human rights violations in Turkey and its disregard for international legal standards.

We urge you, President Biden, to prioritize human rights and press the Turkish government to end its campaign of transnational repression, unconditionally release political prisoners, and restore the rule of law.

Your intervention is crucial to defending the values ​​of democracy and human rights on the world stage. Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter.