The Collapse of the Rule of Law and Human Rights in Turkey

In recent years, Turkey has experienced a massive deterioration of its human rights record, judicial independence, and adherence to the rule of law. This decline began in December 2013, when two major corruption scandals surfaced, incriminating many in the inner circle of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. It accelerated following a coup attempt on July 16, 2016, after which the Turkish administration declared a state of emergency that allowed it to pass decrees without the approval of the legislature or judicial oversight. Since then, nearly 150,000 individuals have been dismissed from government jobs, including, most significantly, almost one-third of the judges and prosecutors in the judiciary. The Turkish government has justified many of these removals by pointing to the individuals’ alleged links to the Gülen movement, a transnational Islamic movement led by Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen. The Erdoğan administration has deemed the Gülen movement a “terrorist organization” (under the name of Fetullahist Terrorist Organization, or FETÖ) and argues that it has created a “parallel structure” within the government, in an attempt to seize control over Turkey.