Human Rights Watch (HRW) has warned that German Chancellor Friedrich Merz should not ignore Turkey’s worsening record on democracy and human rights and an ongoing crackdown on the opposition when he visits Ankara today, Turkish Minute reported.
HRW called on Merz prior to his visit on Wednesday to not overlook the human rights violations and crackdown on the opposition in Turkey during his meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
“The Erdoğan administration is increasingly suppressing the political opposition and the media while expanding political control of the courts,” HRW said in its statement.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer also met with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Ankara on Monday and signed a deal for Turkey to acquire British-made fighter jets, but he made no public mention of the country’s human-rights crisis and an ongoing crackdown on the opposition.
His focus on trade and defense cooperation, without any mention of Turkey’s democratic decline or the ongoing crackdown on the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), drew sharp rebukes from journalists, analysts and rights advocates.
Merz is paying his first to visit to Ankara since his election as chancellor in May. According to a statement from Germany’s Federal Press and Information Office, Merz’s trip to Turkey will focus solely on talks with Erdoğan, with no meetings planned with opposition politicians.
The visits of both Starmer and Merz follow the filing of new charges against Ekrem İmamoğlu, the jailed mayor of İstanbul and one of Erdoğan’s most prominent political rivals. İmamoğlu, a senior figure in the CHP, has been in detention since March on corruption charges, while the new charges concern alleged “political espionage,” a development HRW described as “surreal.”
The group said Merz “would do well to voice concerns that locking up and removing elected opposition politicians raises the prospect of Türkiye abandoning its history of democracy and becoming a far less stable partner.”
HRW said the new espionage probe into İmamoğlu rests on “flimsy claims” of data leaks to foreign countries and the “far-fetched allegations” of a single witness.
The rights group also pointed to a leaked bill that would criminalize LGBTQ+ people, threatening prison sentences for expressions or promotion of what the bill calls “attitudes and behavior contrary to biological sex and general morality.”
The proposal, known as the 11th Judicial Package, would amend Article 225 of the Turkish Penal Code, which currently covers public indecency. Under the draft, anyone who “acts against their biological sex” or “encourages or praises such behavior” could face between one and three years in prison.
HRW said the proposal would drastically restrict access to gender-affirming healthcare and represents a new stage in Turkey’s “vicious crackdown” on marginalized groups.
HRW urged Germany and other European Union members not to ignore Turkey’s authoritarian trajectory in their pursuit of cooperation on defense, migration and regional security. “Merz and other European leaders need to call out the simultaneous vicious crackdown at home and not look the other way,” the statement said.
Talks in Ankara are expected to cover the war in Ukraine, peace efforts in the Middle East and migration management. Turkey has served as a mediator in both conflicts and continues to play a central role in controlling migration routes to Europe.
