Protection Claims and Current Situation in Turkey:

• Turkish Anti-government Protesters

Throughout 2019 and 2020, the Turkish government prohibited many demonstrations on national security grounds, and often detained persons likely to be involved before scheduled protests commenced.

Turkey’s Human Rights Association claimed in 2019 police intervened in 962 demonstrations, and 2,800 individuals were beaten or subject to unnecessary force while police were breaking up protests.

The ability of critics to protest government policies through political demonstrations has been significantly reduced by measures introduced during the state of emergency that remain in place.

• Defamation Against Turkish State Institutions and the President

In recent years, authorities have indicted hundreds of individuals, including journalists and minors, on defamation charges for insulting state institutions and the president.

Media reporting alleged there was a 13-fold increase in convictions between 2016 and 2019 for insulting the president.

Most cases have applied to journalists, but cases have also been filed against writers, politicians, athletes, students, academics and schoolchildren.

In May 2020, a warrant for ‘insulting a public official’ was issued against a CHP youth leader for seven-year old social media posts made when she was 17, while an 80-year old man was detained in April for merely ‘liking’ a supposedly insulting post on Facebook.

• Turkish Human Rights Defenders

According to OHCHR, as of March 2018, the government had permanently closed 1,719 organisations through emergency decree, including human rights and humanitarian groups, lawyers’ associations, foundations and other NGOs. The government has prosecuted many human rights defenders for alleged membership in terrorist organisations, including the Gulen movement and the PKK. In recent years a number of high-profile activists have been arrested and subjected to long, complex and inter-linked legal procedures. Prominent human rights activist and philanthropist Osman Kavala was detained in October 2017, accused of participating in a George Soros-linked plot to overthrow the state.

• Turkish Women Fearing Gender-based Violence and Discrimination

Article 287 of the Criminal Code on genital examinations allows a judge or prosecutor to authorise virginity testing, even if the subject does not consent.

Women’s rights advocates have expressed concern that the government has promoted policies and institutional arrangements that support perceived ‘family interests’ at the expense of women’s rights. In April 2020, there was widespread community uproar over a draft law dubbed ‘marry your rapist’ which would have permitted men accused of having sex with girls aged 14 and over to avoid punishment if they married their victims.

The Law on the Prevention of Violence against Women and the Protection of the Family (2012) does not specifically criminalise domestic violence. Women’s rights advocates report protection orders are insufficiently monitored and rarely enforced.

Courts often hand down lenient judgements to perpetrators of sexual violence, including those convicted of raping minor girls, and sentences are often reduced if the defendant demonstrates ‘good behaviour’ during trials.

• Turkish LGBTI Persons

The law does not guarantee LGBTI individuals certain rights enjoyed by others, including but not limited to marriage and associated partnership benefits such as retirement, inheritance, insurance, social security and access to the corpse in case of death.

Human rights groups report police have used legal provisions relating to ‘offences against public morality’, ‘protection of the family’ and ‘unnatural sexual behaviour’ to justify harassment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and/or intersex (LGBTI) individuals.

Police harassment against transgender sex workers is reportedly common, often to extract bribes. No legislation prohibits hate crimes against LGBTI individuals. Human rights groups claim this leaves LGBTI individuals vulnerable to street crime and general violence.

Article 29 of the Criminal Code allows for the mitigation of sentences, including assault or murder, if the defendant has been provoked by an ‘unjust act’. Human rights groups claim judges have used Article 29 to mitigate sentences in cases of murder of LGBTI individuals.

Pro-government media and high-level officials, including President Erdogan, frequently make derogatory comments and statements about homosexuality.

• Turkish Unrecognised Religious Groups

The government does not, however, recognise the leadership or administrative structure of Lausanne minorities (the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Christians, Jews and Greek Orthodox Christians) as legal entities, which prevents them from buying or holding title to property, and from pressing claims in court. The Lausanne minorities (and other religious minority communities) rely on independent foundations with separate governing boards to hold and control individual religious properties. These foundations have reportedly been unable to renew the membership of their governing boards because the government has not promulgated new regulations since repealing previous rules in 2013.

In May 2019, an 86-year-old Greek Orthodox man was murdered in his home, and, in November 2019, a South Korean Christian missionary was stabbed to death – both incidents attributed to their religious activities. In Istanbul in the same year, an Armenian woman was stabbed at her front door after receiving months of threats associated with her religious beliefs, and in Izmir a Molotov cocktail was thrown at the Beth Israel Synagogue. Community representatives have also expressed concern about negative speech in the state media and from senior members of the government – particularly antiSemitism – which tends to peak at times of heightened tension between Turkey and Greece, Armenia or Israel.

Members of other unrecognised religious groups (including, but not limited to, Baha’i, Yazidis, and Christian groups such as Protestants and the Jehovah’s Witnesses) do not enjoy the same rights either.

Throughout 2019 and 2020, a large number of Protestant foreigners living in Turkey had their residency permits cancelled on spurious national security grounds, which local church representatives claim had the effect of restricting their ability to practise their faith. Their access to public sector employment and promotion is comparable to that of members of the Lausanne minorities. DFAT is aware of occasional reports of vandalism against properties owned by unrecognised religious groups, and of threats against clergy via text messages, social media postings and emails.

• Turkish Kurds

Kurds in Turkey face official discrimination and some sporadic societal discrimination based on their ethnicity. The extent and form of this discrimination depends on geographical location and personal circumstance. Those residing in the southeast, and those active (or perceived to be active) in Kurdish political or civil society organisations are at higher risk than those who are not politically active, or those who support the AKP.