Turkey

The authoritarian and highly centralized presidential government of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has set back Turkey’s human rights record by decades, targeting perceived government critics and political opponents, profoundly undermining the independence of the judiciary, and hollowing out democratic institutions. Turkey has withdrawn from the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (the Istanbul Convention) and is subject to a Council of Europe infringement procedure for its failure to implement a judgment of the European Court of Human Rights ordering the release of jailed human rights defender Osman Kavala. Turkey hosts 3.7 million Syrian refugees and asylum seekers from Afghanistan and other countries.