Erdogan won a third term as president, in the May 28 election, following a May 14 victory for his Justice and Development Party-led coalition in the parliamentary elections.
In September, Türkiye’s Court of Cassation doubled down on its defiance of the European Court of Human Rights by upholding the groundless convictions of the human rights defender Osman Kavala and four others for their alleged role in the 2013 protests over development plans for Istanbul’s Gezi Park. The Court of Cassation flouted a Constitutional Court order by blocking the release of a Gezi trial defendant, Can Atalay, from prison to take up the parliamentary seat he won in the May elections.
Other actions during 2023 causing concern have been restrictions on the media, online censorship, bans on protest and abuse of criminal proceedings against journalists, human rights defenders, politicians, social media users and others. Incidents of police and gendarmerie torture and ill-treatment increased in the aftermath of the deadly February 6, 2023 earthquakes in southeast provinces of the country. The government used hateful rhetoric against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the run-up to the May elections, prolonged the detention of Kurdish politicians on politically motivated charges, and increased deportations of refugees and migrants.