Human Right Watch (HRW) reveals Turkey’s ‘mass deportation’ of Syrians

March 23, 2018 By administrator

Syrian refugee trying to send an infant over a broken border fence into Turkey.

Human Right Watch (HRW) says Turkish forces routinely stop and send back groups comprising hundreds or thousands of displaced Syrians, opening fire on them on many occasions.

In a Thursday report, the New York-based body said the pattern was being witnessed since at least last December. The externally-displaced Syrians are then forced to return to the violence-ravaged province of Idlib, which holds large concentrations of Takfiri terrorists, it said.

As many as 1.3 million other Syrians are already stranded in the northwestern Syrian province.

The organization said Turkey had started preventing Syrian asylum seekers from even legally crossing its border since at least mid-2015.

The report was based on interviews with 21 Syrians, who had recounted how the forces would repeatedly block their entry into Turkey.

Another 35 Syrians told the HRW that they would not try to escape Idlib for fear of being shot by the border guards.

Nine Syrians interviewed described a total of 10 shooting incidents between last September and this March, in which, they said, 14 people were killed and 18 others injured.

EU complicity

The HRW said Turkey’s anti-refugee measures “has been reinforced by a controversial EU-Turkey March 2016 migration agreement to curb refugee and migration flows to the European Union.”

It urged the EU to “instead be working with Turkey to keep its borders open to refugees, providing financial support for Turkey’s refugee efforts, and sharing responsibility by stepping up resettlement of refugees from Turkey.”

The report, however, hailed Turkey for hosting over 3.5 million Syrian refugees, according to the UN refugee agency, saying, “Turkey deserves credit and support for its generosity.”

HRW accuses Turkey of ‘silencing’ 140 media outlets and 29 publishing houses had been shut down

December 15, 2016 By administrator

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused the Turkish government of silencing independent media in an attempt to block scrutiny or criticism of Ankara’s large-scale crackdown on dissidents following an abortive July 15 military coup.

The New York-based rights group said in a report on Thursday that Turkey’s “assault” on critical journalism had accelerated after the putsch and that journalists had described the atmosphere in which they work as “stifling.”

The watchdog said some 140 media outlets and 29 publishing houses had been shut down since mid-July under post-coup emergency decrees, leaving over 2,500 journalists and media workers without jobs.

Accusing Ankara of using the criminal justice system as a tool against the media, the HRW also said the government in Turkey interfered with editorial independence and forced outlets to dismiss critical journalists.

“Keeping 148 journalists and media workers in jail and closing down 169 media and publishing outlets under the state of emergency shows how Turkey is deliberately flouting basic principles of human rights and rule of law central to democracy,” said Hugh Williamson, the Europe and Central Asia director at the HRW.

The Thursday report was based on interviews with 61 journalists, editors, lawyers, and press freedom activists as well as on reviews of court documents. It came after another report by the non-governmental media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) earlier this week, which said Turkey had become the “world’s biggest prison for the media profession.”

HRW: Armenian police used excessive force against protesters

August 2, 2016 By administrator

Armenian police used excessive force against peaceful protesters on July 29, 2016 and assaulted journalists reporting on the demonstrations, Human Rights Watch said.

Police used stun grenades, which wounded dozens of demonstrators and some journalists, some severely. The police also beat journalists and protesters and detained dozens of people.

Armenian authorities have opened an investigation into police actions on July 29.

“Armenia’s investigation of the police assaults on demonstrators on July 29 should be swift and thorough,” said Giorgi Gogia, South Caucasus director at Human Rights Watch. “While the police have an obligation to maintain public order, they do not have carte blanche to use violence against people gathered to peacefully express their views.”

Protests have been ongoing in Armenia since July 17, when armed men from a radical opposition group seized a police station in Yerevan’s Erebuni district, killing one policeman and taking several hostages, demanding political concessions from the government. Before the gunmen surrendered on July 31, public support for them grew into a wide protest movement in Yerevan.

While police and protesters have scuffled several times, on the night of July 29 police used excessive and disproportionate force to disperse a peaceful crowd. Other protests took place without incident or police interference.

Human Rights Watch spoke with victims and witnesses of the violence. Several said that at about 11 p.m., police rapidly fired numerous rocket-projected stun grenades and threw hand-held stun grenades into the peaceful crowds near the police station in the Erebuni district.

Journalists and protesters said that although police told protest leaders that the crowd had to disperse, the police did not make any meaningful effort to warn the crowds to disperse or about their plans to use force. Police did not use other means of crowd control before resorting to stun grenades.

Interviewees told Human Rights Watch that the crowd was not attempting to cross the cordon when police started launching the stun grenades. Video footage of the events reviewed by Human Rights Watch supports the witness accounts.

While police could legitimately seek to prevent protesters from getting too close to the police station, they were still bound to uphold human rights and respect standards on the use of force, Human Rights Watch said.

“Police should not interfere with the legitimate work of journalists, let alone attack and punish them for doing their jobs,” Gogia said.

Also read: President Sargsyan apologizes to journalists over July 29 violence

Ria.ru: HRW считает, что полиция обошлась слишком жестко с демонстрантами в Ереване