UN says rights abuses have rocketed in Turkey, but the country says UN is biased
Geneva — Turkey’s state of emergency has sparked human rights abuses against "hundreds of thousands of people", including killings and torture, the UN warned on Tuesday in a report criticised by Ankara as "biased" and "unacceptable". A state of emergency imposed in Turkey following the attempted overthrow of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in July 2016, and repeatedly extended since then, has had dramatic consequences, the UN rights office said. The report, which covers all of 2017, cautioned that the extraordinary powers handed to the authorities following the failed coup attempt had caused "a continued erosion of the rule of law and deterioration of the human rights situation". "Routine extensions of the state of emergency in Turkey have led to profound human rights violations against hundreds of thousands of people," it said. It warned that the use of emergency powers appeared to be meant "to stifle any form of criticism or dissent vis-a-vis the government." UN rights chief Zeid R...
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