19 March 2021
İHD’s Co-Chairperson and HRFT’s Founders’ Committee Member
Öztürk Türkdoğan Should Immediately Be Released
We have learnt with profound concern that the Human Rights Association’s (İHD) Co-Chairperson and the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey’s (HRFT) Founders’ Committee Member, Mr. Öztürk Türkdoğan, was arrested by the police at his home in another “Friday morning operation” that has become a routine practice in Turkey.
Mr. Türkdoğan has been serving as the chairperson of İHD, the oldest and largest human rights organization in Turkey with an international standing, for the last 13 years since 2008. Mr. Türkdoğan’s arrest that happened shortly after the Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu’s address at the Grand National Assembly of Turkey’s Plenary targeting İHD and not even two weeks after the announcement of the Human Rights Action Plan with flamboyant presentations cannot be accepted in any way.
We would like to reiterate that Turkey is obliged to protect human rights defenders in line with all the provisions set forth in the United Nations (UN) Declaration on Human Rights Defenders along with other international documents it is a party to.
This unlawful arrest should immediately be revoked and Öztürk Türkdoğan should be released without delay.
HUMAN RIGHTS ASSOCIATION
HUMAN RIGHTS FOUNDATION OF TURKEY