Türkiye: Alarming crackdown on peaceful expression condemned
Protests by university students in front of Beyazıt Square in Istanbul.
By Mellonsapka - Own work, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=162608680
“PEN International condemns the brutal onslaught on peaceful expression unleashed by the authorities of Türkiye, who continue to show their utter contempt for the rule of law and long-standing determination to silence peaceful dissent. All those held solely for exercising their rights to peaceful expression and assembly must be released. The ever-growing roll back on fundamental rights in the country must end at once.” Burhan Sonmez, PEN International President.
24 March 2025: The authorities of Türkiye must urgently uphold the rights to freedom of expression, information and peaceful protest, PEN International said today, amidst a mounting crackdown on independent voices, targeting writers, journalists, lawyers and opposition figures.
On 19 March 2025, over 100 people, including Istanbul’s mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, were detained on alleged ‘corruption’ and ‘terrorism’ grounds, in a move widely seen as politically motivated. Massive protests have since erupted in Istanbul – defying a ban on all public demonstrations – and across the country. The authorities temporarily restricted access to social media and messaging platforms in a bid to suppress access to information, and urged X to block access to hundreds of accounts. Journalists who covered the protests reported being subject to police violence. At least ten media workers were detained in morning raids in Istanbul and Izmir on 24 March, as the authorities’ onslaught on fundamental rights intensified.
İmamoğlu’s arrest came in the wake of a mounting crackdown on independent voices in Türkiye in recent months. Already in February 2025, PEN International joined partners in expressing serious concerns over a surge in press freedom violations, including the growing use of arbitrary arrests, detentions and judicial control measures against journalists. That same month, almost 300 people were detained in police raids across the country – including writers, journalists and artists – on alleged ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). On 5 March, writers and Kurdish PEN members Mevlüt Aykoç, Sami Tan and Ronahî Önen were detained in coordinated raids in Istanbul, Urfa and Diyarbakır, ostensibly for publishing teaching material in Kurdish. All three were subsequently released, though the case against them continues.
Meanwhile, the authorities continue to undermine the independence and impartiality of the judiciary, and notably launched criminal proceedings against the Istanbul Bar Association after it calls for an investigation into the December 2024 killing of Kurdish journalists Nazım Daştan and Cîhan Bilgin in north-east Syria. On 21 March 2025, a court ordered that the president and executive board of the Istanbul Bar Association be dismissed as part of the criminal probe.
According to the Ministry of Interior of Türkiye, 1,133 people have been detained since 19 March. As protests continue to sweep through Türkiye, PEN International calls upon the authorities to abide by their national and international organisations and to urgently uphold fundamental rights. The criminal justice system must not be used to target and harass dissenting views.
Note to editors:
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