The Turkish Foreign Ministry on Friday called the 2022 human rights reports of the US Department of State erroneous, unfounded and prejudiced, advising Washington to focus on its own human rights record.
“The 2022 Human Rights Report of the U.S. Department of State contains, as in previous years, erroneous information of unknown origin, unfounded allegations, and prejudiced comments regarding our country. We condemn and reject them in their entirety,” a statement by the ministry said.
The ministry said the report had falsely portrayed Turkey’s legitimate efforts against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) as well as the Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Syria and the People’s Protection Forces (YPG), the military unit of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The ministry accused the US Department of State for underreporting PKK attacks in Turkey and criticised it for not mentioning that the SDF “is controlled by the PKK/PYD/YPG”.
“We draw the public’s attention to the fact that this report was prepared by a country that condones the activities of PKK/PYD/YPG and FETO terrorist organisations and even establishes “partnerships” with them, and thus question its legitimacy and credibility,” the ministry said, referring also to the Gülen movement, which the Turkish government accused of orchestrating a failed coup attempt in 2016 and labels as a terrorist organisation.
“We emphasise once again that this report, which is clearly shaped by political motives and is completely devoid of objectivity, cannot be taken seriously, and we invite the United States to focus on its own record on human rights,” the ministry said.
The US Department of State in its report listed “arbitrary killings; suspicious deaths of persons in custody; forced disappearances; torture; arbitrary arrest and continued detention of tens of thousands of persons, including opposition politicians and former members of parliament, lawyers, journalists, human rights activists, and an employee of the U.S. Mission, for purported ties to “terrorist” groups or peaceful legitimate speech; political prisoners, including elected officials; transnational reprisal against individuals located outside the country, including kidnappings and transfers of alleged members of the Gulen movement without adequate fair trial guarantees or other legal protections; significant problems with judicial independence; support for Syrian opposition groups that perpetrated serious abuses in conflict, including the unlawful recruitment and use of child soldiers; severe restrictions on freedom of expression and press freedom, including violence and threats of violence against journalists, closure of media outlets, and arrests or criminal prosecution of journalists and others for criticising government policies or officials, censorship, site blocking, and criminal libel laws; serious restrictions on internet freedom; severe restriction of freedoms of peaceful assembly and association, including overly restrictive laws regarding government oversight of nongovernmental organisations and civil society organisations; restrictions on movement; refoulement of refugees; serious government harassment of domestic human rights organisations; lack of investigation and accountability for gender-based violence; crimes involving violence targeting members of national/racial/ethnic minority groups; and crimes involving violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex persons” as significant human rights issues observed in Turkey.