Human rights lawyers have called on the International Criminal Court to open an investigation into alleged crimes they say were committed by Turkish authorities against thousands of opponents of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The lawyers alleged that more than 200,000 people were victims of a crackdown that began after a failed 2016 coup in Turkey. However, since 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, crimes with some 1,300 victims could be prosecuted by the Hague-based court — 17 cases of enforced disappearances, the closure of 73 schools in 13 countries that are members of the court, and what they called the “discriminatory” withdrawal or refusal to extend passports and refusal to issue identity cards.
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