In every individual’s life education and the learning of value systems contributes to a critical part of the development of an individual. Values teaches individuals habits, manners, appropriate behavior, respect for individuals among many other important life skills.

The people who play a key role in imparting these values is teacher / professor. Most individuals attain education during which time people come across some sort of a teacher / educator who teaches the critical values of life. Such education continues in some way or the other until a person finishes university. For their contribution they get the honoured across the world.

However, one needs to consider one question. What if someone instead of honouring them for these contributions decides to place such people in lock up. Unfortunately, the Turkish government does exactly this.

A report by the working group on involuntary disappearances which reports to the United Nations Human Rights commission mentions about how the Turkish state abducts such teachers just because they are opposed to the government in Turkey. The report states that:

“When Turkish authorities fail to secure the extradition through legal means, they resort to covert operations, in cooperation with law enforcement agencies from the third countries, including intelligence agencies and police. This primarily includes swift illegal actions to place vulnerable individuals outside the protection of the law and their subsequent transfer. In some cases, these acts have directly contravened judicial orders against illegal deportation. Faced with increasing pressure to comply, host states conduct around-the-clock surveillance, followed by house raids and arbitrary arrests in undercover operations by law enforcement or intelligence officers in plainclothes. The individuals’ names are cross-checked against prepared lists, before being taken to unmarked vehicles by force”.

Moreover, the basic rights of such people are denied.

In most of such disappearences, “Their family members are unaware of their fate and whereabouts. According to testimonies obtained, the victims of these operations have recounted unabated abuse perpetrated by intelligence agents, primarily aimed at obtaining forced confession. Most prevalent forms of torture include food and sleep deprivation, beatings, waterboarding, and electric shocks. This is coupled with threats against lives, security and personal integrity of family members and relatives”.

There are several specific examples where the victims have endured the brunt of the Turkish state for speaking against and opposing it. In Gabon for instance three “Turkish nationals and teachers, their three spouses and seven children were arrested and held in incommunicado detention for 23 days, before they were forcibly returned to Turkey due to their alleged affiliation with a foreign terrorist group. They were deported from Gabon to Turkey”. This is not the only case.

Another teacher was “abducted by Pakistani state intelligence, held in secret or incommunicado detention for 17 days, and then involuntarily returned to Turkey. The house of the Kaçmaz family was raided by intelligence agents in the middle of the night while the family was asleep, presumably after days of surveillance. According to the source, the agents behaved brutally, having pushed, shoved and slapped the parents and the children. The family was deprived of any contact with the legal counsel or the extended family, while their identification documents were forcibly taken during the arrest. Whilst being detained incommunicado, the family was reportedly subjected to physical and verbal abuse aimed at coercing them to voluntarily return to Turkey”. While, these are only a few examples there are many such teachers who are getting abducted.

No teacher/ educator should face the consequences of being educators. In fact in most countries provide full respect to their teachers / educators. It should be the duty of human rights organizations, defenders and the society to ensure that there is respect for its educators. Only then can a society continue to progress in various periods.

quotes from:

https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=25209

The European Union is largely recognized to be a successful union of 27 member states. All the 27 member states have the right to free movement of goods, services, people, and so on. By EU law and practice this also extends to the movement of refugees. However, law and practice in many cases have nothing in common. 

The latest actions of the European Union highlight the doublespeak wherein there is a narrative for public consumption. However, the practical on-ground reality is something vastly different from the on-ground reality. Some latest reports highlight that an eight-month probe by journalists from seven countries uncovered a system run by special units who usually hide their identity by wearing unmarked uniforms and face-covering balaclavas. 

The EU significantly finances Croatia’s border operations, including Koridor. Open source evidence reveals that Intervention Police who are part of Koridor stay at hotels along the border when they are on mission. Hotels & per diems are paid out of the EU’s Internal Security Fund pic.twitter.com/scpvdQWxei

— Lighthouse Reports (@LHreports) October 6, 2021

The Der Spiegel news magazine in its investigation obtained and highlighted videos of 11 pushbacks described by Der Spiegel allegedly show men beating refugees before bringing them back across the border into Bosnia-Herzegovina. However, Der Spiegel is not the only magazine that has highlighted this pathetic treatment of the refugees to state the least. Other videos and witness testimonies point to special Greek coastguard units detailed to intercept asylum seekers’ boats in the Aegean Sea and set them adrift aboard orange life rafts, some paid for with EU cash.

Lighthouse reports which wrote the report concerning EU’s doublespeak highlighted that In Romania, we captured for the first time how Romanian police units are pushing people, back people, to Serbia. The videos, published by Libération, were supported by testimony from people who had been summarily expelled who also reported serious assaults during these same incidents captured on film. DW reports that According to human rights organizations, there were more than 16,000 pushbacks at the Croatian-Bosnian border last year alone. Similar incidents have recently been observed at the border between Belarus and Poland. There are also frequent reports of such operations at the Turkish-Greek border and on the high seas.

EU governments deny the existence of a violent campaign by masked men to turn away asylum seekers at EU borders. A months-long investigation by @LHReports & leading media unmasks these groups, reveals who commands & finances them pic.twitter.com/nGNFs5Epsi

— Lighthouse Reports (@LHreports) October 6, 2021

There are two types of refugees in the EU. One section of them uses a border of a country that has a border to Europe. A second category is refugees from a country that has a border with the EU. It is the second category of refugees who are at risk because when they get pushed back they get arrested in a country that is a country that is not a part and thus is not bound by EU law. The refugees may face human rights violations in non-EU countries like torture.

However, there is very little being done by the European Union to take action against authorities who openly violate EU laws and guidelines and treat the refugees in a pathetic and despicable manner. The state by EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson has said that “This must be investigated” in the context of the pushbacks by refugees and she has also stated that “There is also convincing evidence of misuse of EU funds”, not all EU member states seems to agree. For example, the Greek foreign minister refused to “apologize” for Greece’s ongoing involvement and stated categorically that “Greek borders are the borders of the EU and we act within the framework of international and European law to protect them”. 

These varied actions and statements expose Doublespeak. The hypocrisy of the EU’s woeful lack of recognition of pathetic and crass treatment of refugees. The statement by the EU Home Affairs Commissioner is not tantamount to placing pressure on countries whose border security officials are trying to physically push back migrants. After all, there isn’t a lack of unity by member states on the issue of what to do with errant police officers. The Greek Foreign minister is on record refusing to apologize for the actions of the Greek border guard. It is this doublespeak of the Greek border guard and the overall attitude of the European Union which emphasizes open borders and rights for people to be granted refugee status as soon as they enter EU territory. The double-speak is a woeful lack of recognition of the serious rights violations faced by refugees when police forces use force to push them out of the EU. It is a blatant violation of EU and International law and the EU’s silence in this instance and their general statements on welcoming refugees is hypocrisy and it is this double-speak between the statements and reality as seen in Greece and other EU countries.

Sources from which information was retrieved:

1. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/10/7/croatia-greece-romania-illegal-pushbacks-borders.
2. https://www.euractiv.com/section/justice-home-affairs/news/journalistic-investigation-exposes-violent-pushbacks-at-eu-borders/.
3. https://www.dw.com/en/when-are-pushbacks-at-the-eus-external-borders-illegal/a-59442530.
4. https://thegermanyeye.com/eu-calls-for-investigation-into-illegal-pushbacks-in-croatia-and-greece-4462.
5. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/croatia-confirms-violent-migrant-pushback-border-with-bosnia-2021-10-08/.
6. https://www.lighthousereports.nl/investigation/unmasking-europes-shadow-armies/.

On 24th September 2021, the Judges who formed a part of the Turkey tribunal gave their final judgment on the situation of the freedom of the press, abductions, impunity, judicial independence, and torture. The judges also gave their opinion on whether witness testimony against the Turkish government amounted to the Turkish state conducting potential crimes against humanity against the victims.

The Turkish government had an opportunity to depose in front of the tribunal and present its point of view. However, the government had not sent any representative for the hearing of the Turkey tribunal. Therefore, the tribunal hearing took place without two sides to represent its point of view as would be the case during a normal hearing in a court or a tribunal.

The judges came to some scathing conclusions about the role/involvement of the Turkish state in its disrespect/contempt for human rights. In the case of torture, the judge noted that “The Tribunal is of the view that there is a systematic and organized use of torture in Turkey” and that there is the widespread use of torture against “people suspected of ordinary crimes”. This can be seen as a sign of contempt and disrespect for human rights because the right to a fair trial is a human right under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. An important concept of a free and fair trial as laid out by article 11 section 1 is that

Everyone charged with a penal offense has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to the law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defense.

Torture of an individual due to suspicion is an egregious human rights violation because the police are not tasked with taking law and order into their own hands. In a normal democracy, it is for the courts to decide who exactly is guilty or not.

In this context, it is therefore important to note the scathing remarks of the judges on the issue of judicial independence. The judges note that “even though the applicable legal framework provided effective safeguards, the rule of law was destabilized very swiftly by the government’s reaction to the Gezi Park protest in June 2013 and furthermore to the concrete threat of prosecution of high-ranking state officials for corruption in December 2013”. The judges also notes that “the Tribunal notes with concern the mass dismissals of approximately 4.560 judges and prosecutors in the aftermath of the attempted coup d’état, based on a list drawn up by the High Judicial Council”. In addition the judges also noted that “multiple judges and prosecutors who had adopted decisions or performed investigations disapproved by the government, were summarily arrested and placed in pre-trial detention on suspicion of membership of a terrorist organization after the attempted coup d’État. This constitutes, in the view of the Tribunal, severe intimidation of the judiciary”. While there are several other points on the independence of judiciary made by the judges in the tribunal, the reality as noted by the judges is that judicially in Turkey is being systematically intimidated. Therefore, it gives an opportunity for the police to torture individuals with a judiciary which may not do much to hold the police accountable.

In regards to other human rights issues in Turkey, the judges made some other scathing remarks. As far as abductions are concerned the judges note that:

“The Tribunal furthermore observes a recurring pattern used to execute the enforced disappearances. Regarding domestic enforced disappearances, firstly, the perpetrators do not seem to be worried about an intervention by the law enforcement authorities since the forcible deprivations of liberty are carried out in broad daylight, in the presence of eyewitnesses or security cameras; secondly, the abductions are carried out in a similar manner, namely using the same type of vehicles, often by provoking a car accident and by a bag being put over the heads of the alleged victims after which they are pushed into a black transporter van”.

In so far as freedom of expression is concerned The Tribunal noted that “the repression against the press and freedom of expression points to a larger policy of the State to silence critical voices and limit people’s access to information”. Moreover, the judges state that “The restriction of freedom of expression, in particular press freedom, through the extensive use of criminalization, prosecution, and pre-trial detention of journalists, has been exacerbated by the events of 15-16 July 2016. These restrictions inhibit both the media and the public from actively exercising these freedoms, essential in a democratic society. In addition, they deeply impact the families and communities of their direct targets”.

In terms of impunity, The Tribunal was “of the opinion that there has been a persistent and prevailing culture of impunity in Turkey since 1980, which has reached unprecedented levels in recent years, particularly since the attempted coup d’état of 15 July 2016”. In particular, the judges noted that

The Tribunal acknowledges the Report’s identification of five interconnected causes which contribute to impunity and show the organized and institutionalized nature of the problem: (i) the deficient legal structure, (ii) the political rhetoric reinforcing the patterns of impunity, (iii) the lack of political will to hold state agents accountable, (iv) the ineffective and delayed investigations by prosecutors, and (v) the lack of an independent judiciary.

Due to these conditions, the tribunal noted that it “is of the view that the acts of torture and enforced disappearances committed in Turkey, in applications brought before an appropriate body and subject to the proof of the specific knowledge and intent of the accused, could amount to crimes against humanity”.

These judgments expose the all-around contempt and disrespect for human rights by the Turkish government. Those who question, oppose or disagree with the government or ensure that the government is bound to its limits face impunity, kidnapping, torture, persecution, purgery. This is aided by an executive that has no checks on it by either legislature, judiciary, or the media. The fundamental feature of respect i.e. accountability is all but missing in the Turkish system be it executive,  judiciary, police, or media. These structures have bent to the will of the executive and the wholesale compromise of these institutions exposes the wholesale contempt of the Turkish government because they can commit rights violations and get away with and no one can ask any questions. This is the takeaway of the judgments.

Content from:

1. https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights.

2. https://turkeytribunal.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/TURKEY-TRIBUNAL-FINAL-OPINION-24-SEPT-final.pdf.

As Broken Chalk volunteers, we did not only submit the reports but also followed up.

Our actions were,

We attended the 35th UPR Pre-Session Turkey in December 2019 in Geneva. Try to get in touch with the permanent missions of each country that are present in the meeting. We present our factsheet to the permanent missions. Moreover, give more information on human rights violations in Education in Turkey. We had a short meeting with some countries like Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxemburg.

We send an e-mail to all permanent missions of UN member countries about our submissions.

We attended the 35th UPR Session Turkey in January 2020 in Geneva to see the effect of our works on the recommendations of each country. Moreover, we had a meeting with some countries such as Germany, Iceland, Denmark, Fiji, Croatia, Norway, Italy, and many more countries. We handover our factsheets directly over 30 countries.

In the end, Turkey received 321 recommendations from 124 countries and did not accept 19 of the recommendations.