The Long Arm of Despotism - How Erdogan Silences Dissidents Abroad
Opinion analysis by Johnny Achkar, Staff Writer
August 6th, 2021
Mr. Erdogan operated like a dictator, with the last say in all state affairs even before the failed military coup of 2016. The attempted coup was nothing more than a "gift from God" to wipe what remained of Turkey's democracy and cleanse the army and judiciary in order to secure absolute subjugation of all institutions to his whims, as he phrased it. Following the failed coup attempt, the state detained and dismissed hundreds of government workers, claiming they had ties to the coup's alleged architect, Pennsylvania-based cleric Fethullah Gülen. Academics, authors, journalists, politicians, and critics of all sorts were soon targeted in the purge. Mr. Erdogan's administration has now shifted to kidnapping dissidents, emboldened by the absence of repercussions from NATO and the EU.
Orhan Inandi, a Turkish-Kyrgyz national, went missing in the capital of Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek, on June 1. The next morning, his vehicle was discovered with its doors wide open and valuables inside. Many people believe he was kidnapped by Turkish intelligence. Inandi is the founder of a network of schools in Kyrgyzstan tied to the Gülen movement, which Turkish President Erdogan accuses of masterminding Turkey's failed 2016 coup attempt. This is simply the most recent example of Turkey's global kidnapping effort against perceived adversaries.
This is not the first time a Turkish government has used kidnappings to silence its opponents. Since the attempted coup in July 2016, 16 incidences of domestic abduction have been documented, largely involving people suspected of being Fethullah Gülen followers, but also some alleged PKK supporters. The scope of these kidnapping operations has expanded beyond Turkey's borders. Since 2016, 107 people from at least 16 countries, including Azerbaijan, Gabon, Kosovo, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Saudi Arabia, have been returned to Turkey, the majority of them accused of being Gulenists. Extra-legal means – covert intelligence operations with the “direct participation, cooperation, or consent of the host states where these people were residing” – rather than official judicial proceedings were used in many cases to remove Turkish nationals.
Erdogan has been offered the opportunity to utilize Interpol, the International Criminal Police Organization, as a personal political weapon. Despite the fact that Interpol's charter bans it from intervening in political conflicts, Turkey has often utilized it to apprehend and silence its critics and other political opponents. In fact, it was reported in July 2017 that Turkey attempted to upload 60,000 names of political opponents into Interpol's database in order to have them arrested overseas. Erdogan has even requested an arrest warrant for Enes Kanter, a prominent Gülen follower, through Interpol, claiming that the lackluster basketball star is a "terrorist."
In Kosovo, there was a famous case of foreign detention. In March 2018, the Kosovan security forces, in coordination with the Turkish intelligence agency MIT, detained six Turkish nationals suspected of being linked with Gulenists who had employment and residence licenses in Kosovo and handed them over to Turkey using a private jet. The arrests and deportations were determined to be in blatant violation of domestic and international law by a Kosovo parliamentary investigative commission, which resulted in the expulsion of the Kosovo interior minister and intelligence chief.
The Turkish government has also tried, but failed, to kidnap its enemies in foreign countries. According to a plan exposed in Switzerland in March 2017, two Turkish embassy officials intended to drug and kidnap a Swiss-Turkish executive, who would subsequently be taken to Turkey. The Turkish government has allegedly attempted to spread its own political agenda and extraterritorial activities into Western democratic governments that are viewed as safe havens for Turkish political exiles, according to the international plot. Turkey's extraterritorial measures are an example of transnational repression, which includes a variety of authoritarian policies aimed at silencing political protest in other countries.
President Erdogan's regime has expanded extraterritoriality to his authoritarian authority in the country by marginalizing other major AKP officials, tightening control of governmental institutions increasingly utilized to attack the opposition, and suffocating the media. Extraterritorial abductions and renditions of Turkish dissidents living abroad have a significant impact on the victims as well as the diaspora population. Extraordinary renditions are a source of major concern for the international human rights framework since they deprive victims of their rights to life, liberty, and security, while also spreading fear and mistrust among members of diaspora communities.
Foreign friends of Turkey, notably the United Nations and EU countries, should continue to urge Turkish officials to stop abusing their power and follow domestic and international legal procedures for criminal extradition. They should make it clear to Turkey's leaders that such acts are not permitted on their territory. The international community and human rights watchdogs must likewise exert pressure on the same countries to ensure that they do not comply with Turkey's politically motivated extradition requests that endanger the rule of law worldwide.