A bipartisan majority in the U.S. Senate has urged President Joe Biden's administration to press Turkey to do more to protect human rights.
Fifty-four senators signed a letter accusing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of marginalizing the opposition, silencing critical media, imprisoning journalists, and carrying out a cleansing campaign against independent judges.
The letter states, "We urge you to make clear to President Erdoğan and his administration the necessity of immediately ending their repressive campaign against the opposition, both domestically and abroad, and to release political prisoners and prisoners of conscience and change their authoritarian course."
Earlier, the European Court of Human Rights issued rulings against Turkey in three cases, with cases lodged against Turkey forming 20 percent of the total, the largest share among 47 members of the Council of Europe. Meanwhile, Turkey's EU accession process has been effectively frozen for about three years, partly due to widespread human rights violations in the country.
