Turkey resolutely maintains its commitment to the principles of democracy, human rights and the rule of law while intensively struggling against diverse and severe terrorist threats.

The U.S. Department of State's 2017 Human Rights report on Turkey is one of the routine documents being prepared annually on more than 190 countries to be submitted to the US Congress. The parts of latest report regarding Turkey, as released on 20 April 2018, is again full of false portrayals, unacceptable accusations and allegations.

The necessary and proportionate measures taken within the context of our rightful and legitimate struggle against terrorist organizations such as DAESH, PKK-YPG, FETÖ and DHKP-C are once again presented in a biased manner which does not reflect realities.

In particular, our fight against the radical terrorist organization FETÖ, which has tried to infiltrate into state institutions in order to capture the Turkish state from within, and ultimately staged a bloody coup attempt has been ignored.

It is not a coincidence that the said report, which repeats the narratives of terrorist affiliated groups and recklessly misrepresents the fight against terrorism as "internal conflict", was prepared by a country that hosts the ringleader of FETÖ.

It is expected that countries that genuinely adhere to fundamental rights and freedoms should act responsibly on such an important subject of human rights which must be kept away from politicization. We are deeply saddened that the said report has been drafted in a way inconsistent with this responsibility by presenting the allegations and accusations of terrorist affiliated organizations as reality.

On this occasion, it has been also confirmed that Turkey’s decision to cease its previous cooperation in the preparation of the said report was right as its credibility was tarnished being far from meeting impartiality and objectivity criterias.

Furthermore, we recommend the countries which raise unfair allegations against Turkey firstly to put an end to the systematic violations of human rights against their own citizens.

As we have always been reiterating , while we resolutely continue to fight against terrorism which is a human rights violation per se, we will continue to abide by our international obligations and we will work uninterruptedly for further strengthening the fundamental rights and freedoms.