A rights lawyer told a special European Parliament committee (@EP_Democracy) on Monday that #Turkey uses its embassies, INTERPOL tools and global banking blacklists to pursue critics who have settled in European Union countries. Coşkun Yorulmaz (@Av_Yorulmaz) spoke on behalf of Solidarity with Others (@OthersInfo) at the Special Committee on the European Democracy Shield. The hearing focused on Turkey’s engagement with diaspora communities and religious institutions, including what lawmakers now describe as “transnational repression” on EU soil. His testimony came less than one month after the European Parliament adopted its first dedicated resolution on transnational repression of human rights defenders, which urges EU governments to treat cross border harassment of dissidents as a threat to the rule of law inside the bloc and to consider targeted sanctions against states that engage in it. A pattern already documented by watchdogs Yorulmaz’s description of Turkey’s actions fits what major research groups have documented for several years. Freedom House (@freedomhouse), a Washington based democracy watchdog, says Turkey became one of the world’s most active origin countries for transnational repression after a failed coup in 2016, with operations targeting perceived opponents in at least 31 countries across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Those actions include abductions, forced returns and secret transfers of alleged followers of the faith-based Gülen movement, a religious and social network that Ankara accuses of leading the coup attempt but which is not designated as a terrorist group by the EU or the United States. Freedom House and other groups say Turkey combines these physical operations with legal and administrative tools that reach into host countries. These tools include the use of Interpol alerts, passport cancellations, terrorism financing lists and pressure through diaspora organizations and religious networks linked to the state. INTERPOL and passport blacklists In the parliament hearing, Yorulmaz said Turkey “weaponizes international police cooperation” and uses INTERPOL systems to harass opponents abroad. Independent investigations and expert studies support this claim. A 2019 study for the European Parliament and later NGO reports found that Turkish authorities reported cancelled passports of critics as “lost” or “stolen” in INTERPOL’s database of stolen and lost travel documents, turning a tool meant to fight organized crime into a way to flag dissidents for detention or deportation when they travel. Rights lawyers say people often discover they have been entered into these systems only when they are stopped at borders, and that efforts to have the data removed face long delays or refusals by Turkish authorities to cooperate with INTERPOL review procedures. Asset freezes and watchlists Yorulmaz urged lawmakers to focus on what he called “financial transnational repression.” Under a 2021 amendment to Turkey’s terrorism financing law, authorities can freeze assets of individuals and organizations accused of supporting terrorism. Amnesty International @amnesty warned that the law does not include sufficient safeguards and can be used against civil society. Data compiled by independent monitors show that the assets of at least 703 people were frozen by the end of 2024 in connection with terrorism financing investigations, many of them alleged Gülen supporters whose companies or bank accounts were already seized after 2016. Pro-government media in Turkey present the measures as efforts to block money flows for terrorism in line with United Nations and Financial Action Task Force standards. But rights groups and experts say those same measures spill over into host countries through private sector databases. Yorulmaz told lawmakers that Turkish asset freeze lists feed into commercial “risk screening” products used by banks across Europe. People and charities flagged in these systems often see their accounts closed without explanation, lose access to jobs that require a clean compliance check and struggle to rent housing or open new accounts. One case cited by Solidarity with Others and covered by Turkish Minute involves Time to Help Belgium (@timetohelpbe), a small humanitarian charity based in Brussels that runs food aid and overseas relief projects. Turkish authorities added the group to a national asset freezing list, even though it has no assets or operations in Turkey. The move triggered de-risking by European financial institutions and made it harder for the charity to move funds for projects that had already passed Belgian oversight. Yorulmaz also told the committee that Turkish embassies and religious affairs offices in Europe act as hubs for monitoring diaspora critics, citing media reports about secret units and systematic reporting on exiles, journalists and human rights defenders. Similar allegations have surfaced in several European countries over the past decade. Leaked documents and national investigations in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands described Turkish consular staff and imams linked to the state religious authority collecting information on supporters of the Gülen movement and Kurdish organizations, and sending reports back to Ankara. The Special Committee on the European Democracy Shield was set up in 2024 to look at foreign interference in EU democracies, including disinformation and pressure on diaspora communities. The December 8 session devoted a full item to Turkey’s engagement with its diaspora, including transnational repression and the role of religious institutions. Yorulmaz asked lawmakers to push for several steps at EU level. He said banks in the bloc should not rely mechanically on foreign sanctions or terrorism lists, and that EU law should require a human rights impact assessment before denying basic financial services to people listed by third countries. He also argued that the EU “blocking statute,” which already shields European firms from some foreign sanctions, could be updated to cover politically motivated terrorism lists issued by non-EU governments. MEPs who drafted the November resolution on transnational repression say they want these concerns written into EU foreign policy, migration rules and trade agreements, and they have urged the European Commission to explore using the EU’s global human rights sanctions regime to target individuals and entities responsible for cross border harassment. For many exiled journalists, academics and activists from Turkey, Europe is both workplace and refuge. At the hearing Yorulmaz said that if the EU allows foreign governments to use its banks, its police tools and its own cities as extensions of their repression, democratic institutions on paper will not protect those who depend on them in practice.

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