STOCKHOLM— The Stockholm Center for Freedom today released a new report, “UN Findings on Turkey’s Crackdown on the Gülen Movement: Widespread and Systematic Rights Violations and Crimes Against Humanity Implications,” which analyzes UN findings on Turkey’s post-2016 counterterrorism measures targeting people with alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement.
Drawing on opinions of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, treaty body findings and communications by UN special procedures mandate holders, the report shows how Turkish authorities used vague counterterrorism laws and guilt by association to turn ordinary or previously lawful activities into evidence of terrorism. The resulting crackdown extended beyond arbitrary detention and unfair trials to torture and ill-treatment in custody, mass dismissals, travel restrictions, abductions and forcible returns from abroad.
“Taken together, the UN findings show that Turkey’s crackdown is not a series of isolated abuses but a sustained system of repression built on guilt by association and the criminalization of lawful activity,” said Abdullah Bozkurt, president of SCF. “Repeated warnings that this pattern may, under certain circumstances, amount to crimes against humanity demand accountability, effective remedies and sustained international action.”
Since the July 15, 2016, coup attempt, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has adopted 25 opinions finding Turkey responsible for arbitrary detention in cases involving people accused of ties to the Gülen movement. In at least seven of those opinions, the working group warned that the systematic criminalization of lawful activities and discriminatory targeting based on political or other opinion may, under certain circumstances, amount to crimes against humanity.
The Turkish government has targeted followers of the Gülen movement, inspired by the late Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, since corruption investigations in December 2013 implicated the then-prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as well as some members of his family and inner circle. He dismissed the probes as a Gülenist conspiracy and designated the movement as a terrorist organization in May 2016, intensifying a sweeping crackdown after the coup attempt in July of the same year that he accused Gülen of orchestrating. The movement denies involvement in the attempted coup or any terrorist activity.
The opinions show that Turkish authorities treated a wide range of ordinary or previously lawful activities as evidence of terrorism, including using the ByLock messaging application, having an account at Bank Asya, working at Gülen-affiliated schools, subscribing to movement-linked publications and joining associations or labor unions viewed by authorities as connected to the movement. The working group repeatedly found that the government failed to explain how such conduct constituted a criminal act or provide individualized evidence linking those detained to violence or terrorism-related activity.
The report says these findings are reinforced by judgments of the European Court of Human Rights. It states that effective remedies require Turkey to ensure independent judicial review, end association-based measures in favor of individualized assessment and provide meaningful reparations and restore the rights of those unlawfully affected. Continued UN engagement and independent monitoring, it adds, are needed to ensure that the findings lead to accountability, redress and structural change, rather than documentation alone.
About the Stockholm Center for Freedom
SCF is a non-profit advocacy organization that promotes the rule of law, democracy and human rights with a special focus on Turkey.
Committed to serving as a reference source by providing a broad perspective on rights violations in Turkey, SCF monitors daily developments, documents individual cases of the infringement of fundamental rights and publishes comprehensive reports on human rights issues.
