Findings

Congress finds the following: (1) The United States values its longstanding alliance with the Republic of Turkey, its friendship with the Turkish people, and remains committed to supporting a healthy Turkish democracy. (2) Articles I and II of the North Atlantic Treaty require Member States of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to conduct themselves in a manner that promotes peace abroad and strengthens democratic institutions at home, affirming that the NATO alliance is founded on shared democratic principles. (3) The Republic of Turkey joined NATO in 1952, the first nation, along with Greece, to join the alliance after its founding. (4) Since the attempted coup in July 2016, the Government of Turkey has intensified its crackdown on freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly, and association. In its World 2026 assessment, Freedom House rated Turkey to be Not Free. (5) In the years following the coup attempt, the Government of Turkey has pursued a sweeping and systematic campaign of domestic and transnational repression targeting journalists, academics, students, lawyers, opposition politicians, Kurds, Alevis, and individuals associated with the Hizmet (Gulen) Movement. (6) Since 2016, Turkish authorities have used vague and overly broad anti-terrorism laws to investigate more than 3,000,000 individuals for alleged terrorism-related offenses and to detain or arrest large numbers of people for peaceful civic or religious activities, according to the Stockholm Center for Freedom. (7) The Government of Turkey has used the failed 2016 coup as justification for a sweeping crackdown. In the immediate aftermath, authorities detained tens of thousands of people accused of aiding the coup or supporting terrorism and dismissed thousands of public employees. At least 4,156 judges and prosecutors and more than 5,800 academics were dismissed on terrorism-related grounds. (8) The April 2017 constitutional referendum, advanced by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and held under a state of emergency, shifted Turkey from a parliamentary to a presidential system, concentrating sweeping powers in the presidency. The Venice Commission warned that the amendments represent a dangerous step backwards and risk the country’s degeneration into an authoritarian presidential system. Although the state of emergency formally ended in 2018, many emergency-era measures remain in force, and restrictions on fundamental freedoms persist. (9) According to the United States Department of State’s 2022 Human Rights Report, President Erdogan’s 2018 anti-terror legislation continues to restrict basic freedoms and undermine judicial independence. Since 2016, Turkish authorities have dismissed or suspended more than 60,000 police and military personnel, removed roughly 125,000 civil servants, purged approximately one-third of the judiciary, arrested or imprisoned more than 95,000 people, and closed over 1,500 nongovernmental organizations on terrorism-related grounds. (10) A 2020 Human Rights Watch report found that the Government of Turkey continues to arbitrarily detain and prosecute lawyers, in violation of its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights. According to the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute and the Arrested Lawyers Initiative, more than 1,700 lawyers have been prosecuted, more than 700 were placed in pretrial detention, and at least 553 were collectively sentenced to more than 3,380 years in prison. (11) Turkey ranks 163 out of 180 countries in the 2026 World Press Freedom Index. The European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly found that Turkey unlawfully detains and prosecutes journalists. At least 314 journalists were tried in 2022 and 2023, and several journalists, including Hatice Duman, Mustafa Gok, and Erdal Susem, remain imprisoned for life. In the second quarter of 2025, authorities arrested 10 journalists and tried 103 journalists in 73 cases, resulting in 10 convictions. (12) According to Prison Insider, an estimated 43,000 political prisoners remain incarcerated in Turkey. (13) Arbitrary arrests and unfair trials persist as Turkey’s judiciary remains vulnerable to executive interference, with inconsistent and contradictory rulings from high courts. The case of civil society leader Osman Kavala, arrested in 2017 on unfounded charges, exemplifies this deterioration. Despite a 2019 binding ruling by the European Court of Human Rights ordering his release, Turkish courts have refused to comply. After briefly being acquitted, Kavala was rearrested on espionage charges and, in April 2022, sentenced to life imprisonment without parole, prompting Council of Europe infringement proceedings. (14) The Government of Turkey continues to detain Selahattin Demirtas, a leading Kurdish politician arrested in 2016. The European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly ruled that his detention is unlawful and ordered his immediate release, yet domestic courts have failed to enforce these judgments. In May 2024, Demirtas was sentenced to 42 years in prison on politically motivated charges related to the 2014 Kobani protests. (15) The Government of Turkey continues to detain political opposition leaders like Ekrem Imamoğlu, the Mayor of Istanbul and President Erdogan’s primary political opponent, on bogus corruption, bribery, and money laundering charges. Since March 2025, President Erdogan’s administration has escalated a crackdown on political opposition, resulting in the arrest of more than 500 people. (16) The Government of Turkey continues to censor online expression, prosecuting thousands for social media activity, including for liking or sharing posts. Authorities routinely block online content and have restricted access to major platforms during periods of political unrest. In 2024, Turkey blocked more than 311,000 web addresses, contributing to a total of over 1,264,000 websites and domains blocked since 2007. (17) President Erdogan’s 2023 reelection extended more than two decades of AKP dominance characterized by restrictions on assembly, association, expression, and electoral interference, as documented by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. Between 2021 and 2023, the Constitutional Court considered a case seeking to ban a major pro-Kurdish party, sharply limiting its ability to campaign. Authorities continue to use disinformation and anti-terrorism laws to target political opponents, and ahead of the 2023 elections, courts compelled X (formerly Twitter) to remove numerous accounts and hundreds of posts. (18) In October 2022, the Government of Turkey amended its internet, press, and penal code laws to create a vague new offense, public dissemination of misleading information, and expanded state authority over online speech. Social media companies that do not comply with government demands face severe fines and bandwidth throttling. These amendments enable prison sentences of up to three years and have resulted in arrests, including the detention of 78 individuals in February 2023, for criticizing the government’s earthquake response. (19) Following the February 2023 earthquake, authorities restricted access to X and other major platforms for as long as 12 hours, hindering rescue coordination and humanitarian response. Similar restrictions followed the 2022 Istanbul bombing, demonstrating the government’s readiness to impose information controls during crises. (20) The Radio and Television Supreme Council continues to impose arbitrary fines and broadcast suspensions on critical media outlets. Foreign outlets, including Deutsche Welle and Voice of America, had their Turkish-language websites blocked after refusing to comply with restrictive licensing and censorship requirements. (21) The October 2022 amendments also threaten the security of private messaging services. Regulations issued by the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) require providers to allow government access to user communications, undermining cybersecurity safeguards and expanding surveillance authorities. (22) The Government of Turkey continues to target LGBTQIA+ people and restrict peaceful demonstrations. According to ILGA–Europe’s 2026 rainbow map, Turkey ranks 47th out of 50 European countries for LGBTQIA+ equality. Turkey also has the highest recorded number of murders of transgender people in Europe. Authorities enforce nationwide bans on pride events and have used violent tactics and mass detentions to suppress such events. A draft bill, which was introduced in October 2025, would criminalize behavior contrary to biological sex, raise the age for gender-affirming surgery, and impose prison terms of up to 4 years for same-sex marriage or civil-union ceremonies. (23) In March 2021, Turkey withdrew from the Istanbul Convention, a landmark human rights treaty of the Council of Europe designed to prevent violence against women. Legal experts state that this withdrawal violates both domestic and international law and reflects broader efforts to roll back protections for women, LGBTQIA+ people, and fundamental freedoms. (24) Since 2014, the Government of Turkey has increasingly targeted critics beyond its borders, including in the United States. Freedom House reports that Turkish authorities have pursued opponents in more than 31 countries and secured the rendition of at least 58 individuals without due process. (25) Following the 2016 coup attempt, the Government of Turkey escalated its campaign of transnational repression, forcibly returning or abducting more than 100 individuals, primarily educators linked to Hizmet-affiliated schools. Turkish authorities have pressured foreign governments to transfer or close these schools and have repeatedly abused INTERPOL Red Notices and diffusions to pursue dissidents abroad. (26) Turkish-Americans and lawful permanent residents in the United States have reported threats, intimidation, and harassment linked to politicized Turkish government blacklists.