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2020 RLLR 24

Citation: 2020 RLLR 24
Tribunal: Refugee Protection Division
Date of Decision: January 27, 2020
Panel: K. Khamsi
Counsel for the Claimant(s): Amedeo Clivia (Clivea Law)
Country: Turkey
RPD Number: TB9-12901
ATIP Number: A-2021-00540
ATIP Pages: 000143-0000145


DECISION

[1]       MEMBER: This is the decision in the claim for refugee protection made by [XXX]. So you claim to be a citizen of Turkey and you are claiming refugee protection pursuant to Section 96 and 97(1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. Your allegation are detailed in your-, in the narrative portion of your Basis of Claim form but to summarize, you fear persecution in Turkey due to your Kurdish ethnicity and your Alevi faith and also your support of the HDP. You mentioned that you have been discriminated and bullied because of your Kurdish ethnicity and also because of your religion.

[2]       You were arrested twice by the police in-, in Turkey. You were also involved with the HDP and you have relatives who were arrested and held in custody because of their involvement with the HDP. So, now you are afraid to return to Turkey and be discriminated because of your-, of your faith and also because of you are a supporter of the HDP and you are afraid that if you become involved in politics and you are arrested by the police, they find out that-, about your record and you would be in much more trouble. You also testified that you were involved in social media and that you have been criticizing the government and all that maybe held against you.

[3]       So, determination. I find that you are a Convention refugee based on your ethnicity and your political opinion.

[4]       Now, the identified issues are identity and credibility, your ethnicity. So, with respect to your personal identity, I find that you are a citizen of Turkey based on your testimony and documents that you have provided, including your passports.

[5]       With respect to your ethnicity and religious identity, I find on a balance of probabilities that you are of Turkish descent and Alevi faith. You needed prompting, your testimony was not that forthcoming when you were asked about your religion but you also provided some evidence with regarding the Alevi Cultural Centre here and a letter from the Kurdish Association. Too, you also explained that you did not speak Kurdish because your parents wanted to protect you, however, it’ s not something that you were hiding and that led to-, to-, to-, to travel as you have alleged in-, in your story.

[6]       Now with the regard to credibility, I find that your oral testimony did not contradict your written evidence. You needed prompting but there was no contradiction between your oral and written evidence. You were able to explain all the questions that I asked you. You have also provided evidence to support all your allegations. You have provided as I said, a letter from the Alevi Cultural Centre and from the Kurdish-, Toronto Kurdish Centre. You have provided evidence from your social media. I have a letter from your sister who corroborated your-, your story with regard to your arrest in [XXX] 2018.

[7]       I have reviewed also all country conditions documents that we provided in the NDP and by your counsel and the documentary evidence supports your allegations were always targeted and the information that we have in the NDP. They confirm that Kurds were already-, in Turkey, however, the situation has worsened since the-, the 2016 attempted coup and lots of people are-, were arrested in Turkey just because of-, of their background. Who-, so when you are Kurd and Alevi, it makes things worse and we have lots of evidence with regard to discrimination, with regards to Alevi.

[8]       Now, with regard to your political activities. The evidence indicates that if you are perceived to be a member or-, or of any political group, any opposition group sorry, in-, in Turkey, you may be subjected to human right violations and in-, in Turkey, those who are viewed as anti-government are subjected to lots of mistreatment. Specifically, Kurdish and Alevi’s, they are viewed as a threat to the government and as sometimes associated with the-, sorry, I’m trying to find the-, sometimes they can viewed-, be viewed as-, as associated to terrorist activities.

[9]       So, I find that your profile as a Kurdish and Alevi and your political activities may put you at risk of detention and torture at the hand of the government if you were to turn-, to return to Turkey, based on the objective evidence that we have on file. There were other issues that I did not touch, for example, delay in claiming and you went back to Turkey as well, it could have been considered as re-availment, however, you explained in your narrative and that’s I was-, the reason why that happened and you provided evidence with-, with regard to your delay. A letter from your friends who I did not held that against you.

[10]     Now I looked at state protection and given that the State is the agent of persecution, I find that, there is no state protection for you in Turkey and for the same reasons, I find that there is no internal flight alternative available to you in Turkey.

[11]     And to conclude, I find that you are Convention refugee and I accept your claim.

———- REASONS CONCLUDED ———-