The United Nations on Tuesday Match 20, 2018, called on Turkey to end its 18-month-old state of emergency, saying that the routine extension of emergency powers has resulted in “profound” human rights violations against hundreds of thousands of people and may have lasting impact on the country’s socio-economic fabric. Turkey responds: Turkey on Tuesday slammed the United Nations rights report on its state of emergency as rife with unfounded allegations and said the criticism chimed with propaganda efforts of terrorist organisations

President Tayyip Erdogan declared the emergency after a failed July 2016 coup and issued more than 20 decrees which have often led to torture of detainees, impunity and interference with the judiciary, the U.N. human rights office said. The report further underlines the need ensure independent, individualized reviews and compensation for victims of arbitrary detentions and dismissals and calls on Turkey to promptly end the state of emergency, restore normal functioning of State institutions, as well as revise and release all legislation not compliant with its international human rights obligations, including the emergency decrees. While taking note of the complex challenges Turkey has faced in addressing the attempted coup in July 2016, as well as a number of terrorist attacks, the report cites that the sheer number, frequency and lack of connection of several emergency decrees to any national threat seem to point to the use of emergency powers to stifle any form of criticism or dissent vis-à-vis the Government. Turkey has blamed the coup on a network of followers of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen and launched a massive crackdown on his supporters and others accused of links to terror groups. “One of the most alarming findings of the report […] is how Turkish authorities reportedly detained some 100 women who were pregnant or had just given birth, mostly on the grounds that they were ‘associates’ of their husbands, who are suspected of being connected to terrorist organizations,” said Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a news release announcing the findings. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said nearly 160,000 people had been arrested and 152,000 civil servants fired, "many totally arbitrarily," in the past 18 months, and called the numbers "just staggering."
The United Nations issues a report calling for an end to the nation's state of emergency, claiming it has been used to violate human rights. Turkey responds, calling the report "biased" and "unacceptable".