Lawyers alleged that more than 200,000 people had been victims of a crackdown that began after a failed 2016 coup in Turkey. However, as Turkey is not a member of the ICC, the Court’s prosecutors do not have jurisdiction over cases involving victims who are in the country.
However, the lawyers said, the crimes involving some 1,300 victims could be prosecuted by the Hague-based tribunal – 17 cases of enforced disappearances, the closure of 73 schools in 13 tribunal member countries and what they described as “discriminatory”. withdrawal or refusal to extend passports and refusal to issue identity cards.
The crimes led to what Vande Lanotte called “social death” for the victims.
He said the 1,300 victims identified in the tribunal’s filing were targeted in dozens of tribunal member countries, which would give prosecutors jurisdiction based on a 2019 decision authorizing the tribunal to open an investigation into the alleged deportation of members of Myanmar’s Rohingya minority who were forced to cross the border into Bangladesh, which is an ICC member state, from Myanmar, which is not.
The allegations released on Wednesday follow Turkey’s sweeping crackdown on suspected members of a network around US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom the government has held responsible for the failed military coup. in 2016.
Tens of thousands of people have been detained, while others have been expelled from government jobs, including the police and military. Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said last year that more than 19,000 people remained in prison, convicted of links to the Gulen network which Turkey has designated as a terrorist organization.
Meanwhile, Turkey is seeking the extradition of more than 1,100 suspects from 110 countries, according to the Justice Ministry. In 2021, Turkish agents captured a nephew of Gulen during an overseas operation and brought him to Turkey. Selahaddin Gulen, believed to reside in Kenya, was wanted in Turkey for membership in a terrorist organization.
Fethullah Gulen, a former Erdogan ally who now lives in exile in Pennsylvania, dismissed accusations of involvement in the coup attempt.
Turkish authorities did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.
Associated Press writer Suzan Fraser in Ankara contributed.
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