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  • Silencing Turkey’s Media

    The Government’s Deepening Assault on Critical Journalism

    This report documents five important components of the crackdown on independent domestic media in Turkey, including the use of the criminal justice system to prosecute and jail journalists on bogus charges of terrorism, insulting public officials, or crimes against the state. Human Rights Watch also documented threats and physical attacks on journalists and media organizations; government interference with editorial independence and pressure on media organizations to fire critical journalists; the government’s takeover or closure of private media companies; and restrictions on access to the airwaves, fines, and closure of critical television stations.

  • A Blank Check

    Turkey’s Post-Coup Suspension of Safeguards Against Torture

    This report documents how the weakening of safeguards through decrees adopted under the state of emergency has negatively affected police detention conditions and the rights of detainees. It details 13 cases of alleged abuse, including stress positions, sleep deprivation, severe beatings, sexual abuse, and rape threats, since the coup attempt.

  • “When I Picture My Future, I See Nothing”

    Barriers to Education for Syrian Refugee Children in Turkey

    This 62-page report documents the major obstacles that prevent Syrian refugee children from getting formal education in Turkey, which is hosting more than 2 million refugees from the Syrian conflict that began in 2011. The government adopted an important policy in September 2014 that formally grants Syrian children access to public schools, but key obstacles including a language barrier, social integration issues, economic hardship, and lack of information about the policy, remain one year later, Human Rights Watch found.

  • The Mediterranean Migration Crisis

    Why People Flee, What the EU Should Do

    The 33-page report documents the human rights abuses driving people to make the dangerous sea crossing and the shortcomings of EU migration and asylum policies. The report is based on over 150 interviews in May with recently-arrived migrants and asylum seekers in Italy – Lampedusa, Catania, and Milan – and Greece – the islands of Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Leros, and Kos. The conclusions are also based on extensive Human Rights Watch research in Syria, Eritrea, Afghanistan, and Somalia – the home countries of many of those arriving by sea.

  • Turkey’s Human Rights Rollback

    Recommendations for Reform

    This 38-page report outlines the rollback of human rights and rule of law in Turkey, linked to mass anti-government protests in 2013 and corruption allegations that go to the very heart of the government of the ruling AKP.

  • Why They Left

    Stories of Iranian Activists in Exile

    The 60-page report documents the experiences of dozens of rights defenders, journalists and bloggers, and lawyers whom security and intelligence forces targeted because they spoke out against the government.

  • Time for Justice

    Ending Impunity for Killings and Disappearances in 1990s Turkey

    This 67-page report looks at the lessons on obstacles to accountability from the ongoing trial of retired Colonel Cemal Temizöz and six others for the murder and disappearance of 20 men and boys between 1993 and 1995. It is the first such trial of a senior member of the gendarmerie for serious human rights violations committed in the course of the conflict between the state and the PKK.

  • The EU’s Dirty Hands

    Frontex Involvement in Ill-Treatment of Migrant Detainees in Greece

    This report assesses Frontex’s role in and responsibility for exposing migrants to inhuman and degrading detention conditions during four months beginning late in 2010 when its first rapid border intervention team (RABIT) was apprehending migrants and taking them to police stations and migrant detention centers in Greece’s Evros region.

  • "He Loves You, He Beats You"

    Family Violence in Turkey and Access to Protection

    This report documents brutal and long-lasting violence against women and girls by husbands, partners, and family members and the survivors’ struggle to seek protection. Turkey has strong protection laws, setting out requirements for shelters for abused women and protection orders.

  • Protesting as a Terrorist Offense

    The Arbitrary Use of Terrorism Laws to Prosecute and Incarcerate Demonstrators in Turkey

    This report is based on a review of 50 cases. It describes 26 cases of individuals prosecuted for terrorism simply for taking part in protests deemed by the government to be sympathetic to the outlawed armed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Hundreds of Kurdish demonstrators are currently in prison pending the outcome of their trials or appeals against convictions.

  • Closing Ranks against Accountability

    Barriers to Tackling Police Violence in Turkey

    This 80-page report documents 28 cases of police abuse against members of the public since the start of 2007, and examines official investigations of police conduct in those instances. The cases include fatal and non-fatal shootings by the police; ill-treatment and excessive use of force by police against demonstrators; and ill-treatment during or following identity checks.

  • Stuck in a Revolving Door

    Iraqis and Other Asylum Seekers and Migrants at the Greece/Turkey Entrance to the European Union

  • “We Need a Law for Liberation”

    Gender, Sexuality, and Human Rights in a Changing Turkey

    This 123-page report documents a long and continuing history of violence and abuse based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Human Rights Watch conducted more than 70 interviews over a three-year period, documenting how gay men and transgender people face beatings, robberies, police harassment, and the threat of murder.

  • Turkey: Human Rights Concerns in the Lead up to July Parliamentary Elections

    This briefing paper examines the implications of military interference for human rights, as well as a number of other current human rights concerns, including restrictions on freedom of speech and the press, the harassment and prosecution of Kurdish political parties, ongoing problems of impunity for state officials, and police ill-treatment.

  • Unjust, Restrictive, and Inconsistent

    The Impact of Turkey’s Compensation Law with Respect to Internally Displaced People

    In this 40-page briefing paper, Human Rights Watch analyzes how the Turkish government is failing to provide fair compensation for hundreds of thousands of mainly Kurdish villagers displaced by the military’s brutal counterinsurgency campaigns in the southeast.

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