TURKEY DOESN¡¦T MEET EUROPEAN STANDARDS

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[08:03 pm] 10 October, 2006

Vienna, 10 October 2006– The International Helsinki Federation for
Human Rights (IHF) today published a 26-page briefing paper entitled
Turkey: A Minority Policy of Systematic Negation. The briefing
paper discusses the legal basis for Turkey¡¦s restrictive minority
polices, its interpretation by authorities, and an abundant misuse
of laws against minority members and individuals who seek to promote
minority rights and protection. It also takes up case examples of
how the rights of various ethnic, religious and linguistic minority
groups ~C{ including the Kurds, the Armenians, the Greek, the Alevis,
the Laz, the Circassians, and the Roma ~C{ are violated. In addition,
the paper addresses the situation of sexual minorities in Turkey.

¡§When discussing Turkey¡¦s possible membership in the European Union,
the manner in which Turkey treats its minorities should constitute a
central criterion in judging the country¡¦s observance of human rights.

Today, Turkey¡¦s minority protection still falls seriously short of
European standards. A policy that is characterized by the failure
to recognize the mere existence of most minorities, continued legal
prosecution of people who speak about minorities or historical
facts about them, and the reluctance to solve basic problems faced
by minorities, is unacceptable from a human rights point of view,¡¨
said Ulrich Fischer, president of the IHF.

Turkey continues to practice a policy of ¡§Turkification,¡¨ which
it adopted in the early 20th century. This policy amounts to a
form of cultural assimilation that fails to recognize individuals¡¦
rights to ethnic, national, and religious self-identification, and
aims at forced assimilation with a Turkish identity. It encompasses
several strategies whose rationale violates, in one way or another,
internationally guaranteed standards for minority rights. These
strategies still include: denying formal recognition of minority
groups; hindering their access to the media; limiting their political
participation; violating their freedom of expression (especially in
their own language); impeding their freedom of religion; refraining
from facilitating their freedom of movement and to choose their place
of residence; and practicing or tolerating various other forms of
direct and indirect discrimination.

Turkey bases its minority policies on the Treaty of Lausanne of
1923 and claims to be bound only by this treaty ~C{ which itself
is entirely obsolete in light of current international standards for
minority rights and protection. Moreover, while the treaty provides for
protection for all non-Muslim minorities, all Turkish governments in
the past more than 80 years have interpreted the treaty to guarantee
protection only to three minority groups: the Armenian Orthodox
Christians, the Greek Orthodox Christians, and the Jews. What is
more, these groups are recognized only as religious minorities ~C{
not as ethnic.

While Turkey has no laws in place specifically addressing minority
issues, an abundance of laws are misused against individuals who have
sought to promote minority rights, or even to address the existence of
minorities. These include inter alia the penal code, anti-terrorism
legislation and laws regulating the operation political parties and
other associations.

For example, addressing the issue of discrimination against minorities,
or considering that Armenians in Turkey were victims of genocide,
has been prosecuted under the penal code for ¡§inciting enmity or
hatred among the population¡¨ or ¡§denigration of Turkishness.¡¨

Police continue to interfere in demonstrations and open-air meetings
organized by Kurdish activists many of whom have stood trial for
participating in them.

Recent reforms that have lifted some language restrictions in
broadcasting and education of minority languages have been clearly
insufficient. By law, it is prohibited to use any other language but
Turkish in political activities.

Legislation regulating the operation of religious minorities treats
Muslim and non-Muslim religious communities in different ways and
therefore amounts to a serious challenge to freedom of religion
and religious tolerance. In practice, non-Muslim minorities enjoy
restricted property rights, face interference in the management of
their ¡§foundations, ¡¨ and a ban on training their own clergy. But
also Muslim minorities, such as the Alevis, for example, experience
difficulties in having their places of worship recognized because
authorities regard them as a cultural group, not religious. In
addition, reports persist that all religious minority leaders remain
under government surveillance.

While, under the Lausanne Treaty, non-Muslim religious minorities have
the right to give language education in their own language, in practice
the proper functioning of minority schools is hindered in several ways.

–Boundary_(ID_WTDF5jj9VVdYJs/7VV7YSg)–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress