A report titled “Death Corridor” argues that Turkey’s state of emergency, declared five days after the July 15, 2016 coup attempt, created a system intended to exclude targeted citizens and their families from nearly every part of public and private life.
The document identifies 103 alleged methods of repression, including arbitrary detention, torture, denial of medical treatment, dismissal from employment, seizure of property, cancellation of pensions, restrictions on bank accounts, denial of social assistance, passport bans, barriers to education and pressure on employers not to hire purge victims.
It also documents alleged punishment based on family ties. According to the report, spouses, children, parents and other relatives were denied jobs, welfare payments, travel documents, housing and access to public services because of their connection to someone accused of links to the Gülen movement or another government opponent.
The report describes this process as “social death,” arguing that individual measures reinforced one another. Dismissal caused poverty, blacklisting prevented new employment, asset restrictions blocked access to savings and judicial barriers left victims without an effective remedy.
It further alleges physical abuse and deaths through torture, medical neglect, delayed treatment, pressure leading to suicide and violence in detention. Other sections describe restrictions on religious practice, funerals, family unity, adoption, education and children’s access to health care.
Far from presenting the post-coup measures as a temporary response to a security threat, the report portrays them as a system of permanent punishment imposed without individual proof of wrongdoing and extended to people who were never accused of taking part in the coup attempt.
The document uses the term “genocide” to describe the cumulative campaign.
