Ankara-Sana
The United Nations confirmed today that the President of the Turkish regime, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, bears direct responsibility for the increasing kidnappings and enforced disappearances in Turkey, denouncing the policies pursued by the regime against its opponents.
The Turkish newspaper, Zaman, quoted a report by the international organization presented by the United Nations Panel on Enforced Disappearances at the 48th session of the Human Rights Council, condemning the kidnappings of Turks abroad by the Turkish regime's intelligence service, stressing that they are by their nature a crime against humanity.
The report also denounced Erdogan's press statement on July 5, in which he praised the role of his intelligence service in kidnapping more than 100 people from abroad and forcibly transporting them to Turkey.
The report condemned the increase in cross-border kidnappings that escalated after the 2016 coup attempt, noting that the intelligence services used unidentified aircraft or commercial airlines for these operations.
The report indicated that the victims are held in a secret location for a period ranging between 24 hours and three weeks before their deportation, stressing that canceling the passports of the victims in order to facilitate rapid kidnappings abroad is contrary to international law.
A short film that was published last March highlighted kidnappings carried out by the Turkish regime's intelligence service, increasingly, against opponents in many Turkish cities, especially the capital, Ankara, to be taken to torture centers known as Turkish intelligence farms.
The report includes information on the activities, contacts and cases it examined from May 16 last year to May 21 this year.
More than half of the enforced disappearances were reported to Turkey from Afghanistan, Albania, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Gabon, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Lebanon, Malaysia, Pakistan, Panama, Uzbekistan and Kosovo.
Turkey has witnessed an increase in the incidence of enforced disappearances since the adoption of the so-called “immunity” law imposed by the Erdogan regime after the coup attempt in July 2016, and its aim is to protect persons or officials who committed crimes and illegal acts while confronting the perpetrators and supporters of the coup attempt.
