Report on Turkey crackdown on humanitarian aid groups

Ankara - Turkey has detained 15 staff members of a US NGO working on Syria relief operations. Eleven of the organization (International Medical Corps) members used to work in the southeastern city of Gaziantep, near the Syrian border, and are still in Turkish jails since the incident took place on April 20 of this year.

A news report by Diego Cupolo, from IRIN News, documents and analyses of the crackdown on foreign NGOs is a resurgence in Turkish nationalism and government concerns over Kurdish empowerment inside Syria.

The incident follows last month’s expulsion of Mercy Corps, which had been running one of the largest aid operations in Syria from Turkey, and the detention of 10 staff from Denmark’s Dan Church Aid. Other NGOs, including one from Italy have also recently been banned from operating in the country. Turkish media reports and aid workers say representatives from the UN, the United States, and the EU have been engaged in diplomatic efforts to relax the clampdown, but with little visible effect.

An IRIN examination of documents provided by the Ministry of Interior shows that since mid-2015 a number of other international NGOs have dropped off the approved list. However, a number of NGOs have contacted IRIN to say they are permitted to work even though they are not on the list of approved CSOs [Civil Society Organizations].  Those who do remain listed as permitted to work on "direct activities", including World Vision and Save the Children, have licenses requiring renewal every six to 12 months.

According to the writer: There has been increased scrutiny of their operations since a US-led probe in 2016 into NGO involvement in corruption in the delivery of cross-border aid and since allegations, in pro-government Turkish media, of collusion between NGOs and Kurdish militants.