A report issued by Advocates of Silenced Turkey (AST) in March titled “Turkish Government’s New Strategy: Request Extradition of Hizmet Sympathizers Using Fabricated Documents and False Claims” details the witch-hunt at home and abroad pursued by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan against followers of the Gülen, or Hizmet, movement, accused by Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) of masterminding a failed coup in July 2016.
Discussing the deleterious effects of an ongoing state of emergency declared after the coup attempt, the relentless persecution of adherents of the Gülen movement, the current crackdown on social media critics of a Turkish military offensive in Syria, the suspension of the rule of law in Turkey, the jailing of journalists and suppression of the free press and the attempted extradition or abduction of dissidents who have fled Turkey for asylum overseas, AST concludes by saying, “We are appealing to all the organizations authorized In the scope of the above mentioned issues to generate awareness of the subject and to take all the necessary measures.”
The report can be read in its entirety at http://silencedturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/AST_3-30-18-REPORT6_Turkish-Governments-New-Strategy.pdf
