The United Nations Human Rights Committee has called on Turkey to promptly take all measures necessary to establish the whereabouts of a Turkish-Kyrgyz educator in Kyrgyzstan who is feared to have been abducted by Turkey, Turkish Minute reported.
The International Association for Human Rights Advocacy in Geneva (IAHRA GENEVA) on Friday announced on social media that the committee had within 24 hours answered their written request for interim measures regarding Orhan İnandı.
The founder and president of the Turkish-Kyrgyz Sapat school network operating in Kyrgyzstan, İnandı went missing on May 31. The educator is feared to have been abducted by Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) due to his alleged links to the Gülen movement.
The committee also said the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government should ensure that İnandı would not be subjected to torture and inhuman treatment, guarantee his physical and mental integrity and immediately place him under the protection of the law.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement, a faith-based group inspired by Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen, since the corruption investigations of December 17-25, 2013, which implicated then-Prime Minister Erdoğan, his family members and his inner circle.
Dismissing the investigations as a Gülenist coup and conspiracy against his government, Erdoğan designated the movement as a terrorist organization and began to target its members. He intensified the crackdown on the movement following a coup attempt on July 15, 2016 that he accused Gülen of masterminding. Gülen and the movement strongly deny involvement in the abortive putsch or any terrorist activity.
The ruling AKP was also asked to officially inform the committee and İnandi’s family and legal representatives of his whereabouts and take all measures necessary to enable the educator to be in regular contact with his relatives and legal representatives.
The committee’s requests were in line with Rule 94 of its Rules of Procedure, which states that the committee may request, at any time after a request is submitted and before a determination on the merits has been reached, the relevant government to urgently take such interim measures as it considers necessary to avoid possible actions that could have irreparable consequences for the relevant parties.
“İnandi … is now protected by the interim measures adopted by the Human Rights Committee. The acceptance of our request for interim measures firstly shows that our application will, a priori, pass the ‘admissibility’ test by the Committee,” IAHRA GENEVA said on Twitter.
This decision, which demonstrates that what was done to İnandi was a serious violation of international law, is binding for Turkey, the rights group underlined, adding that Ankara’s failure to implement it would create legal responsibility for Turkey.
Over the past five years scores of men alleged by Turkish authorities to have links to the Gülen movement, living in countries around the world, have been arbitrarily detained and forcibly returned to Turkey. There they are incarcerated on bogus terrorism charges in violation of due process rights and protections.
In a joint letter UN rapporteurs accused the Turkish government of engaging in the systematic practice of state-sponsored extraterritorial abductions and forcible returns to Turkey, with at least 100 Turkish nationals from multiple states including Afghanistan, Albania, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Gabon, Kosovo, Kazakhstan, Lebanon and Pakistan removed to Turkey.
In a number of cases the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) concluded that the arrest, detention and forced transfer to Turkey of Turkish nationals were arbitrary and in violation of international human rights norms and standards.
