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How Turkey became unsafe haven for dissidents

While Ankara requests the most renditions of any country, its own borders remain extremely porous, its security personnel vulnerable to corruption and its territory a playground for foreign intelligence services.

A street vendor sits in front of the Blue Mosque during the new year's celebrations in Istanbul on December 31, 2020. - Turkish government announced a four-days lockdown between December 31 and January 04, 2021. (Photo by Yasin AKGUL / AFP) (Photo by YASIN AKGUL/AFP via Getty Images)
A street vendor sits in front of the Blue Mosque during the new year's celebrations in Istanbul on Dec. 31, 2020. — YASIN AKGUL/AFP via Getty Images

Mohammed Mosaed is an award-winning Iranian journalist. He famously tweeted during the November 2019 protests in Iran, “Knock knock! Hello Free World! I used 42 different proxy to write this! Millions of Iranians do not have internet. Can you hear us?" The tweet required not only significant technical skill but also nerves of steel.

Mosaed was arrested in November 2019 and kept for 16 days at the notorious Evin prison, which is run by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

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