Riot police detain a demonstrator during a protest against the dismissal of academics from universities following a post-coup emergency decree, outside the Cebeci campus of Ankara University, February 10, 2017. Depo Photos/Zuma Press/PA Images. All rights reserved.The Turkish government’s response to the 2016 coup attempt is well known. In the name of national security, it has pursued a concerted campaign to crack down on the media, academics, the independence of institutions, human rights defenders and political opponents.
According to Erdogan’s critics, we are witnessing a barely veiled attempt to establish a new sultanate. The speed and magnitude of measures taken is dazzling. With the media focusing on Erdogan’s April referendum, it is easy to lose sight of, or cover up, the tensions and serious abuses in the Kurdish areas in the south-east of the country.
The ongoing campaign in the region once again bears the hallmarks of military and security rule. It turns the Kurdish population into ‘the enemy’, to the extent that even health professionals stand accused of belonging to a terrorist organisation by virtue of having provided treatment to ‘members of a terrorist organisation’.
