Civil society organizations “Welcome” and International Civic Solidarity Platform-CROSOL warned on human rights violations caused by the Turkish president’s policies, whom they called a dictator.

The NGOs organized the protest action during the visit of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The message on their banner read: "EU, you sold your soul to the devil!"

“The economic benefit (of the investments) for Croatia is extremely suspicious and unclear, however, information and evidence of violation of a number of rights in Turkey is well-known and very much substantiated,” the NGOs said in a statement.

They said that Turkish authorities working for Erdogan are being accused of killing refugees on the border with Syria, that Turkey had unlawfully forced thousands of refugees to return to Syria, and that conditions in reception and detention centers for refugees in Turkey "are unworthy of any living being, let alone people seeking shelter and a safe environment."

"The list could go on and more arguments are available as to why Turkey is anything but a safe country, for example the legal and practical aspects arising from the controversial agreement between the EU and Turkey. Among other things, the EU, including Croatia as a member-country, with that agreement violate international law and the Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees as the key mechanism for assistance to people in need of protection,” the two NGOs said.

Daily abuse

They stressed that Turkish citizens and members of ethnic groups living in Turkey are among the world’s biggest refugee populations, seeking protection from violation of human rights and restriction of freedom of expression as well as other freedoms.

“Turkey is a country where activists, academics and media workers are, on a daily basis, verbally abused, arrested for supporting and publishing content that is contrary to the Turkish authorities’ interests, punished with huge fines under the pretext that they defame the ruling party, and forced into self-censorship through bribing of media editors and owners, while some of the cases of murdered journalists remain uninvestigated. If this is not enough, let us repeat that Turkey is a country where the rights of workers, women and LGBT persons are systematically violated, a country where an ethnic conflict between Turks and Kurds has been going on since the end of World War I, and a country where people who think differently face so-called anti-terrorist operations," the statement said.

After the protest action, held in front of the hotel where the meetings were held, activists put a banner on the studio balcony of the artist Sanja Iveković, but the police quickly removed it with the argument that it represents a security threat.