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VOA \u2014 WASHINGTON – The overnight arrest of an outspoken Iranian women\u2019s rights activist by Turkish authorities earlier this month has sparked concerns about the precarious lives of Iranian refugees and the alleged surveillance of them by Iranian intelligence in Turkey. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Maryam Shariatmadari was one of the \u201cGirls of Enghelab [revolution] Street\u201d who participated in protests against Iran\u2019s compulsory hijab in 2017. She fled Iran and sought refuge in Turkey in 2018, a year after she was sentenced to a year in prison for \u201cencouraging corruption by discarding her hijab in public.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
Shariatmadari was detained September 7 by the Turkish police in Denizli because of an expired residency permit, and she was transferred to migration authority officials for deportation. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Her detention caused a widespread social media campaign by several Iranian and Turkish activists who emphasized that Shariatmadari could face persecution in Iran if she were deported. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The next day, she was released on the condition that she would leave the country within 30 days. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Shariatmadari told Radio Farda<\/a>\u00a0that, “if there was no [social media] support, I would have been forced to sign the deportation letter, and my fate would have been unclear.” \u00a0<\/p>\n Turkey is home to Iranian political refugees who fled the regime\u2019s repression, according to National Union for Democracy in Iran (NUFDI), a Maryland-based pro-democracy organization of Iranian Americans. \u00a0<\/p>\n Legal status<\/strong> \u00a0<\/p>\n As of November 2019, about 39,000 Iranian refugees live in Turkey, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). \u00a0<\/p>\n Turkey is a party to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees known as the Geneva Convention. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n However, Turkey maintains a geographical limitation to the convention that requires it to grant refugee status only to individuals from the Council of Europe member states. By that measure, non-Europeans are not protected under international refugee law. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cRegardless of the country of origin, foreigners seeking international protection in Turkey are registered as international protection applicants,\u201d wrote Selin Unal, the spokeswoman for the UNHCR in Turkey, in an email to VOA. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n UNHCR facilitated the asylum process of Iranian applicants and their transfer to third countries until September 2018. Since then, those applications have been examined by the Turkish Directorate General of Migration Management (DGMM). \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n According to the DGMM figures, 3,588 Iranians applied for international protection in Turkey last year. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Some experts point out that Turkey\u2019s geographical limitation to the Geneva Convention makes Iranian refugees, who are regarded as other non-Europeans seeking refuge in the country, vulnerable to living\u00a0in precarious conditions. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cLacking legal protections conferred by the refugee status, Iranians live under constant fear of deportation as their fate depends on the ups and downs of bilateral relations between Tehran and Ankara,\u201d Aykan Erdemir, director of the Turkey Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former Turkish parliament member, told VOA. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Mentioning this month\u2019s Turkey-Iran High-Level Cooperation Council meeting, Erdemir argues that the deepening relations between these two countries often means \u201cgreater pressure on Iranian dissidents who reside in Turkey.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n Iranian intelligence in Turkey<\/strong> \u00a0<\/p>\n Besides the growing fear of deportation by Turkish authorities, Iranian refugees are deeply concerned about the regime\u2019s alleged surveillance activities abroad via the Revolutionary Guard\u2019s long reach. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n Some analysts argue that because Iranians can travel in Turkey for 90 days without a visa, Iranian intelligence could enter Turkey to spy on the dissidents in exile. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe lack of a visa requirement permits members of Iranian intelligence to enter Turkey using their ordinary passports instead of having to show their official ones. This enables the Quds Force, an elite foreign operations unit of the Revolutionary Guards to increase their activities in Turkey,\u201d Savash Porgham, an Istanbul-based journalist specializing in Iranian politics, told VOA.\u00a0<\/p>\n Raha, who declined to give her last name out of concern for her security, believes Iranian agents are spying on political refugees like her in Van, a border city with Iran. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe fear and insecurity are growing day by day, and I can feel the shadow of plain-clothed Iranian agents over my head who wander\u00a0among us in the gloomy streets of Van and do whatever they want to us from harassing to kidnapping,\u201d Raha said. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe strange kidnapping of [Arash] Shoa-Shargh in broad daylight is a clear proof,\u201d she added. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Arash Shoa-Shargh is an Iranian journalist who fled Iran for Turkey after being convicted for \u201cspreading lies and publishing without permission\u201d in 2017. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n![\"Map](\"https:\/\/im-media.voltron.voanews.com\/Drupal\/01live-166\/styles\/sourced_737px_wide\/s3\/2020-02\/Van-province-Turkey.jpg?itok=sK2JxErm\")
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