Turkey is described as an open prison by many inside the country with human rights and democracy seriously eroded by the brutal regime of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
There are more journalists in prison than any other country, with a third of the world’s total. Hundreds of media organisations were shut down followed a failed coup attempt in 2016, described by Mr Erdogan as “a gift from God.”
It gave him the green light to escalate oppression and move against critics and political opponents. More than 170,000 public-sector workers were sacked by government decree, branded “terrorists” by Mr Erdogan.
The same label was used to justify purging 8,000 academics from their posts after they signed a petition calling for a peaceful solution to the country’s so-called Kurdish question.
Opposition parliamentarians from the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) — Labour’s sister party — were rounded-up in a series of night raids in November 2016 and carted off to prison.
Many remain there, including former party leaders Figen Yuksekdag and Selahattin Demirtas who face the rest of their lives in prison on trumped-up terrorism charges.
Source: Morning Star
