156. The ‘Teror Arananlar’ website contains a database of individuals labelled by the Turkish authorities as ‘terrorists’. Not unlike INTERPOL’s alert system, the website has colour coded lists, with the ‘Red List’ containing those that Turkey perceives to be the most serious terrorists, such as Fethullah Gulen, the leader of the Gulenist movement accused by the government of orchestrating the failed 2016 coup d’etat. Fair Trials has found that amongst the individuals listed on the Turkish government’s website are also individuals known to be recognised refugees, and those whose INTERPOL Red Notices have been deleted for failing to comply with INTERPOL’s rules. 157. We have deep concerns about these online lists, not only because of their visual similarities to INTERPOL’s public Red Notices, but also because they appear to be a way of avoiding formal international police cooperation. Rather than calling on police forces to seek information about wanted persons, the website targets the general public, by offering financial incentives to informants. It is also apparent that the Turkish authorities are using these lists to track down individuals living in exile. The website encourages informants overseas to provide information to their nearest embassy or consulate, and the website 68 has been translated into various languages, including German, presumably given the large Turkish and Kurdish diaspora communities in Germany and other German-speaking countries. In effect, the Turkish ‘terror search’ lists seem to be designed to turn members of diaspora communities against one another by luring them with financial rewards, and to send a message to those who have fled Turkey that they are not safe even in their place of refuge. In April 2018, Fair Trials wrote to the president of the European Commission to highlight our concerns that Turkey is sowing division in its diaspora communities in Europe, and putting dissidents at risk. 158. It is unclear why the Turkish authorities are using using Turkey’s own online platform to target dissidents overseas, but the high-profile criticisms that they have faced for misusing INTERPOL’s systems cannot be ignored. There were even reports in 2017 (later denied by INTERPOL) that INTERPOL had suspended Turkey after it had attempted to seek the arrest of 60,000 wanted persons through INTERPOL. Turkey could be using an alternative mechanism to intimidate its critics now that INTERPOL has made it more difficult for countries to abuse its systems.

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