Federica Mogherini, EU High representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the EU arrives at 2016 summit with Turkey. (Aurore Belot / Press association) All rights reserved. In Turkey, truth and justice have become strangers. Six human rights defenders were imprisoned this week on the absurd charge of supporting a terrorist organization. They await trial, which could prolong their incarceration for several months. Four others were released but remain under investigation. Their movements have been restricted and they have to report to the police three times a week.
Among those imprisoned is Idil Eser, Amnesty International’s director in Turkey. “I have committed no crime,” she wrote to me from detention last week. Nor have any of the others. Since the July coup in 2016, the Turkish government has seized on any whisper of dissent as an excuse to crackdown on political opponents. In this climate, even defending human rights is treated like a crime.
Despite a foreign policy supposedly committed to supporting human rights defenders globally, the EU’s public response to Turkey’s horrific crackdown on human rights had been muted.
