IAHRA Geneva had the honor to write to ambassadors of Democratic Republic of the Congo, Senegal and Guinea-Bissau as a follow-up to President of Turkey Erdogan’s four-day official visit to 3 African states.

Turkey has been over the last years establishing a pattern of signing bilateral security cooperation agreements that might remain secret, with broad and vague references to combating terrorism, in order to organize transnational abductions and extraordinary renditions of “so called” terrorists. These agreements are designed to bypass the conditions and safeguards provided under regular extradition and deportation processes, in violation of non-refoulement obligations.The Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) has highlighted this Turkish practice in its report:

Since the attempted coup of 2016, Turkey has targeted the suspected members of the Hizmet/Gulen movement, classified by the Government of Turkey as ‘Gülenist Terror Organization (Fethullahçı Terör Örgütü, FETÖ)’ or ‘Parallel State Organisation (Paralel Devlet Yapılanması, PDY)’. In this context, the Government has signed bilateral security co-operation agreements with multiple States allegedly containing broad and vague references to combatting terrorism and transnational crime. Sources claim that the agreements have been phrased ambiguously to allow for expulsion or abduction of anyone deemed to be a “security risk” from third countries party to the agreements.

Turkey has sent 800 extradition requests to 105 countries in the last four years and it has abducted 116 people from 27 countries since 2016, allegedly from the Gülen Movement, without due process, forcibly returned by the MIT (Turkish intelligence services), and then facing torture, arbitrary detentions and unfair trials.

Therefore, IAHRAG commends these states’ constant support to promote and protect human rights, notably through their active participation in the work and activities of the Human Rights Council and commitment to human rights instruments. We firmly trust that these African states did review all agreements signed with Turkey to ensure:

• (a) their full compliance with its human rights obligations, including the principle of non-refoulement, the procedural safeguards prior to extradition, deportation, expulsion and return processes; and
• (b) that its responsibility will not be engaged due to activities grounded on these agreements.

Our organization firmly intends to keep working and collaborating with Senegal, Guinea-Bissau and DRC to ensure the achievement of our common goal, which is the promotion and full implementation of human rights worldwide.

Our differences do matter, but our common humanity matters more.

Bill clinton