Several American prominent NGOs addressed President Barack Obama with an open letter calling him to make rule of law and political freedoms a priority in engagements with Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey. 

The letter was written by the Foreign Policy Initiative, Freedom House, Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED), and Reporters Without Borders.

The NGOs urge Obama to pay attention to the arrest and prosecution of journalists, writers, and Kurdish intellectuals and political activists. They note that relations between U.S. and Turkey need “to be based on our shared values, not just shared strategic interests.”