US Congressmen Call on Biden to Pressure Turkey

To stop human rights violations and transnational repression

-Peru must reject the extradition agreement with Turkey, due to Turkey's record of violating human rights, disrespect for freedoms, use of torture and lack of judicial independence.

- Peru rejected Turkey's extradition request of a peaceful Turkish citizen, who is now Peruvian

Ricardo Sánchez Serra*

More than 140 North American congressmen (exactly 142) demanded that the president of the United States, Joe Biden, put pressure on the Turkish president's government, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to respect the human rights of the Turks and, in particular, to stop the repression of the members of the Hizmet (Gülen) Movement, the most peaceful cultural and religious movement in Islam.

Inexplicably, Erdoğan considers as his number one enemy a pacifist group dedicated to education, promoter of values ​​and spiritual deepening, the Hizmet Movement - present in more than 170 countries -, led by the Muslim scholar and preacher, Contact Fethullah directly, 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.

Notably, Gülen is one of the world's leading 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 them translated into more than 33 languages.

Bewildered, the Turkish government (read Erdogan) promised $15 million to Donald Trump's former national security advisor, Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, to kidnap Gülen and take him to the Turkish prison island of Imrali. The plot was discovered by former CIA director James Woolsey.

 Likewise, and violating the sovereignty of the countries, agents of the Turkish intelligence service enter any nation looking for peaceful Turkish citizens - even those rooted for many years - and kidnap them, take them to Turkey, where they suffer the worst humiliations and tortures. The kidnappings happened in Kosovo, Malaysia, Myanmar, Moldova, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Gabon, among other states. His own Minister of the Interior revealed it, without giving details of which States they were. They failed in Mongolia, where these agents had doped a Turk and on the way to the plane, the police intercepted them.

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

Therefore, we once again urge the Peruvian Government to reject Turkey's request to sign an extradition agreement, due to Turkey's record of violation of human rights, disrespect for freedoms, use of torture and lack of judicial independence. If you sign it, peaceful citizens are being sentenced to death.

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

Below is the letter from the North American 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. Additionally, we highlight the alarming cases of abuses of Interpol by Turkey, including the forcible transfer of more than 100 citizens since the 2016 coup, with allegations of torture, denial of legal rights and coercion.

Erdogan's government has attempted to silence critics in the United States, such as NBA player and human rights defender Enes Kanter Freedom, by pursuing his family in Turkey and placing an Interpol red notice and reward on him and others. much 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 officials, administration workers, police, soldiers, judges, prosecutors and citizens have been fired, suspended, detained or imprisoned for reasons related to terrorism.

The government's repression extends to media outlets, non-governmental organizations 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 oligarchs. related to the party. Control of the mainstream media has been backed by a massive crackdown on independent media.

Gülen supporters and Kurdish journalists are disproportionately targeted by this repression, with lengthy pre-trial detentions and frequent police raids on newspaper offices obstructing journalists' important work. 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. People associated with the Gülen movement, a faith-based civil society religious organization that promotes interfaith dialogue and education, have been among those mistreated.

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

Selahattin Gulen, for example, a teacher, was kidnapped in Kenya; Koray Vural, businessman, in Tajikistan. Orhan Inandi, president of a successful school network, was kidnapped in Kyrgyzstan and suffered torture in prison, while Turkish media showed 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 Freedom Center 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 Gülen movement is deeply worrying. The UN special rapporteur's letter in 2020 condemned the systematic practice of state-sponsored extraterritorial kidnapping and forcible return of Turkish citizens from multiple countries.

The victims suffer torture, pressure and humiliation before being deported, and the Turkish government does not deny or hide these actions.

In 2023, Freedom House recorded 125 incidents of transnational repression committed by 25 governments. Its database now includes 1.034 direct and physical cases of transnational repression in 100 countries, carried out by 44 governments since 2014, including Turkey as both a home and host country. Journalists based in the United States have faced the closure of bank accounts and various 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 underline the urgency of addressing Turkey's failure to comply with international law.

The ECHR ruled that the prolonged detention of Selahattin Demirtas, a Kurdish politician, and Osman Kavala, a philanthropist, 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 pressure 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 defend the values ​​of democracy and human rights on the world stage. Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter.

*Visón Honesta 2023 World Journalism Award