Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) sent a letter to U.S. Vice President Biden – ahead of his upcoming visit to Turkey – to express concern about the ongoing crisis in Turkey’s southeast. In a report titled “Southeastern Turkey: Health Care Under Siege,” we detail how Turkish authorities committed, and continue to commit, serious human rights violations in their pursuit of quelling unrest among its Kurdish minority.
In the letter, we ask Vice President Biden to do all that is necessary to defend human rights for the people of Turkey, and in particular to implore his Turkish counterparts to 1. Investigate the violations associated with the security operations in the southeast; 2. Immediately release and drop charges against all those wrongfully detained, imprisoned, or charged for exercise of their rights, and 3. Allow international monitors and other observers into the southeast.