In recent years, human rights violations have increasingly been reported in Turkey. Various international bodies and courts have confirmed this, sometimes even in very sharp terms. That is why we have taken the initiative to set up a “Turkey Tribunal.”

D O N A T E

Hear the testimonies of witnesses

Home Hear the testimonies of witnesses

Hear the testimonies of witnesses

Hear the testimonies of witnesses

The legitimacy of the Tribunal stems, on one hand, from the independence and competence of its judges and rapporteurs and, on the other hand, from the imperatives of conscience, involving the broad participation of witnesses to testify about the facts where flagrant violations of human rights and the rights of peoples occur.

Witness and Video Narration

You can watch all the details of what happened.

Ercan Kurkut (Brother of Kemal Kurkut)

Impunity Witness: The witness testified that his 23-year-old brother was killed by Turkish police officers during the Newroz festivities in Diyarbakir on 21 March 2017. The witness stated that the day after his brother was killed, the state seized all photographs and footage taken of the incident in order to fabricate their own version of events. According to the witness, the state claimed that there had been a suicide bomber and that his brother had been killed in that context.

The Witnesses

Abductions in Turkey Today, Torture in Turkey today, Judicial Independence and Access to Justice, Press Freedom in Turkey etc.

Barbaros Şansal

IMPUNITY TESTIMONY: Famous outspoken fashion designer, but besides being a fashion designer, Şansal is also known as an LGBT rights advocate and an anti-war activist; took part in the Gezi Park protests in 2013...
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Cevheri Güven

PRESS FREEDOM VIOLATION TESTIMONY: In 2013, Guven had been fired from a newspaper for reporting on corruption involving then-prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party.
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Ercan Kurkut (Brother of Kemal Kurkut)

IMPUNITY TESTIMONY: Ercan Kurkut is the brother of Kemal Kurkut. Kemal Kurkut was a twenty-three-year old Kurdish student, who studied at the Fine Arts Faculty.
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Eren Keskin

TORTURE TESTIMONY: Keskin is a lawyer and human rights activist in Turkey. She is the co-chair of the Turkish Human Rights Association (İHD) and a former president of its Istanbul branch.
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Erhan Dogan

TORTURE TESTIMONY: A history teacher by profession, was detained nine days after a July 15, 2016, failed coup and taken to a gym run by the Ankara Police Department that was used as a detention center after the coup attempt by its counterterrorism department (TEM).
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Faysal Sarıyıldız

ACCESS TO JUSTICE and INDEPENDENCE of JUDICIARY TESTIMONY: A persecuted, imprisoned and exiled Kurdish politician of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and a former Member of Parliament representing the Sırnak Province.
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Gökhan Güneş (Lawyer Sezin Uçar)

ABDUCTION TESTIMONY: Gokhan Gunes (represented by his lawyer) His lawyer will represent him in Turkey Tribunal assembly as he is still personally struggling with the trauma and treatments.
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Hasan Dursun

ACCESS TO JUSTICE and INDEPENDENCE of JUDICIARY TESTIMONY: Hasan Dursun A former prosecutor; between 2004 and July 2016, he worked as a prosecutor in different cities in Turkey. Between 2011 and 2014, he served as an expert on the Council of Judges and Prosecutors.
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Journalist (testifies in camera)

RESS FREEDOM VIOLATION TESTIMONY: Turkish journalist, blogger and an activist for media freedom and independence who has lived outside Turkey since the 2016 failed Turkish coup d’etat.
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Mehmet Alp

TORTURE TESTIMONY: As a teacher in a government school and academic abducted by MIT officials in Cizre on April 18, 2015; forced to sign pre-written testimony statements which accused him of encouraging his students to join PKK; threatened with a gun when denied to sign;
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Meltem Oktay

PRESS FREEDOM VIOLATION TESTIMONY: Meltem Oktay, a Kurdish journalist reporting from Nusaybin during the curfews in 2015, was jailed for three years with ‘membership of a terrorist organisation’ charges because of her news pieces.
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Mesut Kaçmaz

Mesut Kaçmaz and Meral Kaçmaz, a couple that was abducted from their home after midnight in Lahore on September 27, 2017 and deported illegally by the Pakistani government to Turkey just two days before their scheduled appearance before a Pakistani court.
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Mustafa Özben

ABDUCTION TESTIMONY: Abducted by Turkish intelligence in May 2017, Mustafa Özben was working as an academic at Turgut Özal University which was shuttered by government decree after a failed coup in July 2016 due to the institution’s alleged ties to the Gülen movement.
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Süleyman Bozoglu

ACCESS TO JUSTICE and INDEPENDENCE of JUDICIARY TESTIMONY: A judge for fifteen years; in his last post, Bozoğlu was an investigative judge at the Supreme Court Criminal General Assembly. He was arrested 6 days after the July 15 coup attempt on July 22, 2016 that followed many other ...
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Tülay Açıkkollu (Wife of Gökhan Açıkkollu)

IMPUNITY TESTIMONY: Tulay Acikkollu is the wife of the 42-year-old history teacher who died after enduring 13 days of torture and abuse; Açıkkollu was detained on July 24, 2016 on trumped-up charges...
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