In a forceful rebuke, Human Rights Watch has accused rapidly re-Islamizing Turkey of “dismantling human rights protections” on an “unprecedented scale.” Historically (and currently), the more Islamized a country gets, the more it tends to violate human rights. That’s because it adheres to the Sharia on issues such as the death penalty for apostates and homosexuals, the inferiority and of women and the requirement that she not venture out in public unless everything except her face and hands (and in some regions everything except for her eyes) is covered, the expansion of the domains of an Islamic caliphate via jihad (1,400 years of it), the persecution and subjugation of religious minorities who are deemed to be inferior, etc. The evidence is global and historic, contrary to Islamic supremacist deceit and despite denial by Leftists — and worse than denial: the Washington Post actually hailed Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as an “austere religious scholar.”
The rebuke by Human Rights Watch “followed Turkey’s chief prosecutor announcing plans to shut down the opposition pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) for acting ‘against the indivisible integrity of the state with its country and nation,’ which came amid a series of arrests of party members in cities nationwide.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also withdrew Turkey last week “from the Council of Europe’s Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence.”
In response, on March 20, thousands of women protested in cities across Turkey, declaring that the women’s movement in Turkey will continue the struggle and demand government action to combat the entrenched problem of domestic violence and femicide
HRW is accusing Erdogan of “weaponizing” the Council of Europe treaty, which is popularly known as the Istanbul Convention, to “appeal to his religiously conservative base.” But even more than accountability to his base, Erdogan remains true to his own convictions as an Islamic supremacist despot with visions of a revived Ottoman Empire.
“Turkey: Erdoğan’s Onslaught on Rights and Democracy,” Human Rights Watch, March 24, 2021:
(Istanbul) – The government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is dismantling human rights protections and democratic norms in Turkey on a scale unprecedented in the 18 years he has been in office, said Human Rights Watch today. The government took further dangerous measures over the past week to undermine the rule of law and target perceived critics and political opponents.
On March 19, 2021, the president issued a decree suddenly withdrawing Turkey from the Council of Europe’s Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, known as the Istanbul Convention, a groundbreaking treaty strongly supported by the women’s rights movement in Turkey. The move came two days after the chief prosecutor of Turkey’s top court of appeal announced that he was opening a case to close down the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), only hours after the Erdoğan-controlled parliament improperly expelled an HDP deputy.
“President Erdoğan is targeting any institution or part of society that stands in the way of his wide-ranging effort to reshape Turkey’s society,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. “The latest developments against parliamentary opposition, the Kurds, and women are all about ensuring the president’s hold on power in violation of human rights and democratic safeguards.”
President Erdoğan’s dramatic move to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention with an overnight presidential decree is part of efforts to shore up support from religious conservative circles outside his party and shows his readiness to use the convention as a pretext to promote a highly divisive and homophobic political discourse. That discourse disingenuously claims women’s rights undermine so-called family values and promotes a hateful and discriminatory view of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people.
The president’s communications chief on March 21 issued a written statement defending the decision to withdraw Turkey from the treaty, saying that it was “hijacked by a group of people attempting to normalize homosexuality – which is incompatible with Turkey’s social and family values.” The claim stems from the convention’s language prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Women’s groups across Turkey have been staunch supporters of the convention as it legally obligates governments to take effective steps to prevent violence against women, protect survivors, and punish abusers.
Given the hundreds of murders of women by partners and former partners in Turkey each year, Erdoğan’s move to withdraw from and weaponize the treaty for political ends and to ignore the treaty’s desperately needed protections for women is shocking, Human Rights Watch said.
“The decision to withdraw is a profoundly backward step in the struggle to protect women’s rights in Turkey and a major blow for all women across the political spectrum,” Roth said.
In response, on March 20, thousands of women protested in cities across Turkey, declaring that the women’s movement in Turkey will continue the struggle and demand government action to combat the entrenched problem of domestic violence and femicide….
RichardL says
Human rights are based on Kantian ideas derived from the second or Humanity Formulation of the categorical imperative. We are all born with and die with dignity. islam denies the concept of dignity because humans are slaves of allah. That is what Hegel was talking about in his master-slave dialectic. Dignity is the only absolute, human rights are relative, but in sharia dignity does not exist and thus human rights are not relative but founded on nothing.
oskar says
I would not be surprised if Turkey starts to throw the gay men from the heights of minarets into the ground in five years or even sooner. This kind of hateful and threathening language against gay people and non-muslims from the state officials makes these communities to worry about their future and will lead to a very dangerous situation. This is a part of Erdogan’s 2023 vision. A sharia state just near the Europe with full credits to the EU from Erdogan…
gravenimage says
Grimly agree. Murders of gay people are *very* common in Turkey, and the perps are seldom prosecuted.
Eir says
As a country becomes Islamized, human rights, as reflected in the universal charter, cease to exist. Islamic nations do not recognize human rights, they made it clear that they understand human rights in another way, always dependent on Islamic law. It is curious that the millions of Muslims who come to the West repeatedly mention human rights when they do not believe in them. They only take advantage of it, as with our aid systems or democracy itself that they do not really like, they want theocracy.
Santos says
The biggest threat to eastern europe is Turkey and must be stopped at all costs.
born saturday says
erdogan will start a nuclear war as soon as he aquires nuclear weapons in three years… the end of the world will start from the religion of war and spread…. he has jailed every opponent he found in the country and murdered them in jail… journalists military judges everyone who has a different view from the sultan goes to jail… a ruthless dictator that will do anything to kling on to power… what is happening in turkey is another one of those islamic ethnic cleansings….
Crusades Were Right says
“Turkey” and “human rights” (i.e. God-given rights) are contradictory terms.
R Russell says
I just love this photo of Erdogan with his horns.
GreekEmpress says
If anybody still hasn’t read it, “The Thirty Year Genocide “ by Benny Morris and Dror Ze’evi is a must read.
gravenimage says
Thank you, GreekEmpress. I need to read this book.
Raja says
In Pakistan, “religiosity” is said to be the cause of naked Sharia aggression on the hapless Kafirs. The same factor seems to be behind rise of Islamic fervor in Turkey.
In the age of social media and internet the devil has used it optimally to spread Islam and its tentacles through vile creatures like Zakir Naik, but the West is still in deep slumber and denial, that Islam is one of the most undesirable ideology detrimental to world peace and prosperity.
gravenimage says
Turkey accused of ‘dismantling human rights protections’ on an ‘unprecedented’ scale
……………..
That’s what Islamization does for you.
SRABH13 says
Turkey is being effectively compliant with the 1990 Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam which designates Sharia Law compliance as the core of all Islamic Human Rights. If you are not a fully believing. practising Muslim, no Human Rights can ever apply to you under Sharia Law compliance.
Egypt led the ideology that helped create the Organisation of Islamic Countries after it rejected the 1948 Universal Declaration in Human Rights created through the League of Nations. This was simply because the central core standards were based upon man made legislation / law rather then having been based upon the Holy Koran and Hadith’s setting out Islamic standards for absolute practising belief in Islam.
OLD GUY says
Erdogan is a DICTATOR, human rights mean nothing to this man.