Solidarity with OTHERS has issued a letter to Interpol Secretary General Jürgen Stock, warning against Turkey’s continued abuse of international policing mechanisms to persecute political opponents. In our communication, we highlighted that the Turkish government is expected to shift tactics by requesting Red Notices on fabricated ordinary criminal charges after its previous terrorism-based requests failed to gain traction. We stressed that Ankara has long misused Interpol while also orchestrating abductions and forced returns of dissidents abroad through cooperation with certain allied states.
In the letter, we detailed the severe human rights violations in Turkey since the 2016 coup attempt, including mass dismissals, arbitrary detentions, imprisonment of women with their children, and at least 72 suspicious deaths in custody. We also underlined the growing fear among thousands of exiled Turks in Europe who remain at risk of politically motivated Interpol actions. As Solidarity with OTHERS, we called on Interpol to remain vigilant and to block any misuse of its systems that could further endanger victims of persecution.