WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s imposition of a three-month state of emergency following a failed military coup must not be used as a pretext to commit human rights violations, the advocacy group Amnesty International said in a press release on Thursday.
"Emergency measures must respect Turkey’s obligations under international law, should not discard hard-won freedoms and human rights safeguards and must not become permanent," Amnesty International Turkey researcher Andrew Gardner said in the release.
Turkey has detained 10,000 people following Sunday’s attempted coup and fired or suspended tens of thousands of government employees, including judges, soldiers, civil servants and educators.
The release expressed concern that the sheer volume of prisoners raises the prospect of "ill-treatment in custody."
Steps by Erdogan to silence critics prior to the coup attempt, including government takeovers of some of the nation’s largest newspapers and broadcast networks have sparked international concern that the Turkish president is using the coup as an excuse to crush all opposition to his rule.
