AST GIVES A VOICE TO THE VOICELESS AST holds conventions to bring light to the ongoing conflict and its influences in Turkey and also develops strategies to champion human rights worldwide through panels, discussions, workshops, art and photo exhibitions, and legal training sessions. Among the events we have organized are the Freedom Convention 2020, Women as Survivors of Conflicts (within the UN CSW conferences), film festivals, photo exhibitions and book talks! Around 1,660 materials including; reports, events, infographics and videos have been created in four years. We are a group of lawyers, judges, academics, journalists, and hundreds of activists who cherish democratic ideals and universal human rights. We are prisoners of conscience wanted by the Erdogan’s regime, relatives of political prisoners, and victims who have lost their jobs, property and even family members to the current administration which has been described as a Mafia State. We are the Advocates of Silenced Turkey. We, the Advocates, have made it our mission to champion the rights of Silenced Turkey until universal human rights and democratic governance are established and sustained as the utmost priorities of the Republic of Turkey. TAKE ACTION We stand up for our rights and the rights of others who have been silenced. You can be one of the advocates of silenced Turkey by being a volunteer of AST.

The jails in Turkey have long been mentioned in the same breath as inhumane actions and the breach of even the most basic rights, especially against the political prisoners. The violations have reached to unprecedented levels in parallel with the emergence of the current political-Islamist authoritarianism. The oppressive regime under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s rule instrumentalized the country’s legal system to muzzle the political dissidence, turning the prisons into concentration camps. The number of inmates behind the bars has reached historic highs. Hosting convicts much more than their capacities, the prisons, which were already substantially subpar, have fallen way below the minimum acceptable standards for human dignity. Patients in particular bore the most of the brunt of this precipitated deterioration of the prison conditions and the wrath of the Turkish regime against its opponents.

From 2016 to 2023, in the midst of the human rights crisis, numerous individuals fell victim to grief, stress, and illness. As of November 2023, we have documented 952 casualties attributed to the state of emergency (OHAL) and decree laws (KHK), which include 90 children. This encompasses suspicious deaths in prisons, those who took their own lives, and those who lost their lives while trying to flee Turkey across the Meric and Aegean, encountering denial to return to their home countries. The numerous state-sanctioned human rights abuses in Turkey are too extensive to enumerate. AST engages in a range of activities, from organizing conferences and panels to writing reports submitted to relevant organizations and committees. Collaborating with other organizations is crucial for sharing causes, learning from others' stories, and amplifying our own narratives. In response to the pandemic and global crises, AST has adapted its strategies, incorporating virtual protests, panels, and written works, including reports and books. Survivor interviews are shared through books, providing a platform for the voices of those persecuted. AST encourages people to write letters to decision-makers and focuses on youth empowerment, recognizing the significant role young advocates play. Collaboration between youth and adults is essential in all aspects of our activities, including the use of art and music to advocate for human rights. In 2024, AST remains committed to being the voice of the voiceless, defending fundamental rights, educating and motivating human rights advocates, urging leaders to prioritize human rights, and convening groups for collaborative action. Let us unite in the fight against violence, inequality, and injustice. Through solidarity and political unity, we can amplify our strength, break down prejudices, and work towards a world free from violence and injustice. Thank you for being part of this crucial cause. AST GIVES A VOICE TO THE VOICELESS The Advocates of Silenced Turkey (AST) are committed to combating human rights abuses and injustices within Turkey. AST consists not only of legal experts but also includes relatives of political prisoners and victims who have faced job loss, property confiscation, and the loss of family members under the current oppressive administration. AST actively participates in various human rights initiatives, which encompass the creation of reports submitted to relevant committees, councils, and entities. AST organizes conferences, documents all forms of violence and injustice experienced by the Turkish people, arranges exhibitions, produces documentaries, and hosts art competitions. Committed to advancing democracy and human rights in Turkey, AST is dedicated to expanding its efforts in raising awareness and advocating for the cause.

Yolgezer, a formerly imprisoned artist, invites the world to see the dire human rights violations in Turkey. Through an anonymous activist perspective, the artist specifically depicts Turkey’s jails where tens of thousands of political prisoners are kept. You will not only witness how the life is like in prison, but also learn why those prisoners of conscience are incarcerated and how they feel behind bars.

When the Turkish President declared in an infamous speech that “Old Turkey no longer exists. This Turkey is new Turkey”, the story of Turkish authoritarianism had once and for all taken on a new character. Since July of 2016, the Turkish government has improperly imprisoned 160,000+homemakers, teachers, NGO workers, academics, judges, prosecutors and journalists. Once upon a time, the Republic of Turkey was lauded by insiders and outsiders for constituting a powerful model for democratization. In New Turkey, however, silence against the regime’s draconian laws, mass imprisonment, and frequent violations of universal human rights has become the norm. In a regime which ranks as the worst upholder of the rule-of law including Eastern Europe & Central Asia, 200+ media outlets have been shut down and 308 journalists and numerous human rights defenders, politicians, including Ilhan Isbilen, Hidayet Karaca, Buşra Erdal, Selahattin Demirtaş and Osman Kavala are held as political prisoners of the state. As a prominent journalist and recipient of international awards, Ahmet Altan was among the political prisoners who resist the regime’s unlawfulness. He was jailed for five years as a result of the crackdown on freedom of expression in Turkey. We are a group of lawyers, judges, academics, journalists, and hundreds of activists who cherish democratic ideals and universal human rights. We are prisoners of conscience wanted by the Erdogan’s regime, relatives of political prisoners, and victims who have lost their jobs, property and even family members to the current administration which has been described as a Mafia State. We are the Advocates of Silenced Turkey. We, the Advocates, have made it our mission to champion the rights of Silenced Turkey until universal human rights and democratic governance are established and sustained as the utmost priorities of the Republic of Turkey. In this regard, we have been the voice of voiceless people of Turkey by means of more than 200 human rights projects. We have shared the stories of the victims of grave human rights violations and persecution in Turkey through the personal belongings of them in The Social Genocide exhibition held in over 4 locations so far. We are also sharing the lives and experiences of persecuted people of Turkey with books. Among those books are the life stories of Gokhan Acikkollu and Halime Gulsu who died of torture in during incarceration in Turkey’s jails. In order to shed light on hideous assaults and rights violations in jails that women face, we have recently conducted a survey which will be reported to international entities and presented in conferences. Furthermore, as AST, we have been gathering prominent human rights experts to only discuss the human rights issues but also recommend solutions at our signature event, the Freedom Convention. For more work we do as human rights defenders please see this report closely. Thank you for all the support you do to help us achieve our humanity goals!

You know how it goes in fairy tales… The dark sorcerer who gets angry at the prince uses magic to turn him into a frog. The frog-turned-prince cannot talk anymore, so only a miracle can save him now. This is pretty much what happened to the volunteers of the Hizmet Movement. Using a staged fake coup, the patriots of this country were framed in just one night as traitors by the evil corrupt political power and their names were added into the lists of torture and death. All their properties have been seized and they were left no other choice but to escape from their homeland. What you will read below are the true stories of the Hizmet volunteers, one of them is a past lawyer of Bank Asya and the other is a distinguished scientist. You will witness how their lives have been taken from them after that ominous night of coup and how they fought back to save their families from evil. The only difference between these stories and those fairy tales is that… everything in this story is true!

The best country-by-country assessment of human rights. The human rights records of more than ninety countries and territories are put into perspective in Human Rights Watch's signature yearly report. Reflecting extensive investigative work undertaken by Human Rights Watch staff, in close partnership with domestic human rights activists, the annual World Report is an invaluable resource for journalists, diplomats, and citizens, and is a must-read for anyone interested in the fight to protect human rights in every corner of the globe.