Human Rights in Turkey Between 2002-2017 According to Human Rights Watch Reports

Human Rights Watch is one of the international human rights pressure groups. The annual reports address the development of countries' human rights. The pressure groups aim at influencing the policies that governments follow. The reports published by the Human Rights Watch, are to make the states revise their internal and external policies. This study examines the reflection of human rights in the reports, especially during the periods of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), 2002-2017. The main reason why we deal with the reports published between 2002 and 2017 is to reflect on the policies pursued by a party that defends democracy and emancipates and attaches importance to human rights. The reports were analyzed by Nvivo11 qualitative analysis. The reports being exposed to content analysis, it became clear that freedom of expression, Kurdish rights and torture were given more importance. Human Rights Watch has not been objective in Turkey’s fight against terrorism. However, according to the reports, during the JDP government period, there is a decline in the promotion of human rights.