Michael Rubin — a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and one of Washington’s most experienced analysts on Turkey and the broader Middle East — has published a blistering commentary accusing Ankara of systemic and long-running human-rights violations. Rubin, a former Pentagon official with field experience in Iran, Yemen, Iraq and even Taliban-controlled Afghanistan prior to 9/11, is widely regarded for his outspoken assessments on regional security. In his latest article Michael Rubin issues stinging indictment of Turkish human rights, the post is among his most uncompromising yet.
Rubin, who has taught U.S. Navy and Marine units about terrorism and conflict dynamics and authored major works such as Dancing with the Devil and Eternal Iran, draws on years of research and firsthand familiarity with Turkey’s military behaviour. His statement has already generated debate across diplomatic and academic circles.
Rubin recounts “Collective Punishment” against Kurds
In his analysis, Rubin revisits the decade-old Turkish military operations in Cizre, Mardin and other Kurdish cities — events he describes as “illegal collective punishment.”
He cites the cutting of water and electricity, diabetics dying due to lack of insulin, civilians killed by indiscriminate shelling, and residents prevented from reaching hospitals. Satellite images, he notes, reveal widespread destruction, while credible reports indicate execution-style killings of suspected Kurdish activists.
Rubin emphasises that Turkish Air Force strikes on Kurdish and Yezidi villages continue, frequently hitting civilians. UN personnel in Iraq, he adds, avoid certain roads at dusk to reduce the risk of being mistakenly targeted by Turkish troops.
State Department report: “Arbitrary killings, torture, and transnational repression”
Rubin highlights the latest U.S. State Department human-rights report, which lists Turkey for a broad range of abuses, including:
- arbitrary or unlawful killings,
- torture and degrading treatment,
- arbitrary arrests and detentions,
- transnational repression,
- involvement in the recruitment of child soldiers abroad,
- and severe restrictions on free expression and media freedom.
He argues that the findings underscore a pattern of behaviour that Ankara attempts to deflect from public scrutiny.
Cyprus: Five decades of occupation
Rubin notes that the Turkish Army has occupied northern Cyprus for more than fifty years, accusing Ankara of ethnic cleansing, demographic engineering, and resource exploitation.
He links this to broader regional aggression, pointing out Turkish Air Force overflights of Greek islands and the Turkish Navy’s role in both harassing and facilitating migrant flows as a geopolitical tool.
Legal action against Netanyahu branded “Political Theatre”
Rubin dismisses Turkey’s court proceedings against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “meaningless theatre” aimed at inflaming public sentiment and diverting attention from skyrocketing inflation and the collapse of the Turkish lira.
He argues that Turkey’s history of hosting Hamas and fabricating legal cases undermines its credibility internationally.
Rubin calls for accountability: Travel bans, interrogations, and War-Crimes investigations
Drawing on precedents from post-WWII tribunals to Argentina’s Dirty War, Rubin asserts that countries affected by Turkish military actions should consider:
- investigating Turkish soldiers for war crimes,
- banning entry to military personnel who served during operations in Cizre, Mardin, and Diyarbakir,
- imposing sanctions on F-16 pilots implicated in Greek airspace violations or strikes on Kurdish and Yezidi communities,
- prohibiting travel and bank access for those suspected of abuses,
- and subjecting travelling Turkish officers to questioning or even polygraph tests.
“If Erdoğan can accuse others, others can examine Turkey”
He concludes that real change will come only when Turkish officers face consequences outside Turkey’s borders.
“When the stigma of killing Kurds or occupying Cyprus becomes too great,” he writes, “Ankara will be forced to confront its own actions — even if it takes Turkish officers in European, Arab, Israeli, or American courts to do so.”
