Al-Akhbar English, Lebanon
January 28, 2015 Wednesday
Turkish Human Rights Record Comes Under Fire from UN
by Chloe Benoist
Turkey faced harsh criticism Tuesday at a United Nations review of its
rights record, with diplomats condemning intimidation of journalists
and brutal police crackdowns on demonstrators.
“We are concerned about growing restrictions on freedom of expression,
including censorship of new media and the Internet, and provisions of
Turkish law that unduly limit peaceful assembly,” US representative
Keith Harper told the UN Human Rights Council.
His comments came during the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of
Turkey’s rights record — something all 193 UN countries must undergo
every four years.
But Turkey hit back, insisting it had made great strides in human
rights and that freedom of expression and assembly were
“indispensable” parts of the country’s democratic order.
“The protection and promotion of human rights is one of our priority
political objectives,” Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc told
the council.
While acknowledging there were some journalists in Turkish prisons, he
insisted their detention was “not related to their journalistic
activities.”
Arinc added that there were currently 31 journalists in jail,
contradicting Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s recent claim
that there were only seven.
The Egyptian delegation at the UPR was especially harsh in its
criticism, with representative Amr Ramadan lamenting a “severe
deterioration in the human rights situation in Turkey,” and slamming
Ankara for deadly crackdowns on demonstrations and jailing
journalists.
“We would have wished to have seen such criticism coming from parties
who adhere to the same universal values as we do,” Arinc fired back at
Egypt, which itself has jailed numerous journalists and seen many
protesters killed in clashes with security forces.
However, Egypt’s criticism was echoed by a large number of the 122
diplomats to take the floor Tuesday.
Harper, the US representative, pointed to “government interference in
the judiciary and law enforcement sectors,” including efforts to
reorganize the courts, warning that this “undermines the rule of law.”
British representative Karen Pierce expressed concern over
“restrictions on the freedoms of assembly and expression, and the
separation of powers,” urging Ankara to “ensure judicial reforms are
implemented in line with international standards.”
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government has sacked thousands of
police and scores of judges, and pushed through legislation tightening
state control over the Internet and the judiciary, raising questions
at home and abroad about the state of democracy in Turkey.
On January 20, Turkish police carried out raids targeting at least 20
people suspected of being involved in illegal wiretapping, a move
local media said was aimed at supporters of Erdogan’s ally-turned-foe,
US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.
Erdogan, who consolidated his power further in moving from the prime
minister’s office to the presidency in August, said on Friday he would
pursue Gulen’s supporters into their “lairs.”
In December, Turkish police raided media outlets close to Gulen and
detained at least 23 people nationwide.
Erdogan has described Gulen’s supporters in the past as “terrorists”
and “traitors.”
Alluding to an international conspiracy, Erdogan said the “parallel
structure” — the term Erdogan uses to refer to Gulen’s supporters in
the judiciary, police and other institutions — was targeting Turkey’s
stability, independence and economy.
Erdogan has also pushed through legislation increasing government
control of the judiciary, most recently a law restructuring two top
courts.
The raids on Zaman newspaper and Samanyolu television marked an
escalation of Erdogan’s battle with Gulen, with whom he has been in
open conflict since a corruption investigation targeting Erdogan’s
inner circle emerged in 2013.
“The free press cannot be silenced,” a crowd chanted at the offices of
Zaman as its editor Ekrem Dumanli made a speech defiantly challenging
police to detain him, while elsewhere in Istanbul the chairman of
Samanyolu TV was being detained.
Turkey frequently orders blackouts of media coverage of controversial issues.
On Monday, A Turkish court ordered Sunday to block access to a number
of Facebook pages that share materials deemed insulting to Prophet
Mohammad.
The Turkish government threatened to block access to all social media
interfaces, including Facebook, if the latter fails to shutdown pages
allegedly insulting the Prophet.
On January 14, Turkish daily Today’s Zaman reported that social media
sites Twitter and Facebook, along with many other websites, have been
blocked in the country after anonymous accounts published new evidence
in an ongoing case accusing Turkey of illegal arms shipments to
Islamist rebels in Syria.
The Syrian delegation, meanwhile, urged the Turkish government to
abide to counter-terrorism laws and reinforce its control over its
borders with Syria to “prevent the movement of terrorist groups.”
“We recommend that Turkey show genuine and full commitment to
international treatments and resolutions combating terrorism,
especially Security Council resolutions,” the Syrian delegation said.
The Syrian government has consistently accused Turkey, a NATO member
and one of Washington’s key allies in the region, of playing a major
role in fueling the armed crisis in Syria by opening its borders and
allowing free access to foreign jihadists into Syria.
Others criticized Turkey on Tuesday for discriminating against minorities.
Armenia’s representative Vahram Kazhoyan said Ankara should return
“the confiscated properties of Armenians and other religious
minorities, such as places of worship, including monasteries, church
properties and religious and cultural sites.”
He also called for Turkey to “fully implement the international
obligations emanating from the UN Convention on the Prevention and
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.”
Armenians say the Ottoman state conducted genocide against them during
World War I repressions that left an estimated 1.5 million people
dead. But modern Turkey has always vehemently resisted terming the
mass killings as genocide.
A recent survey showed that only 9.1 percent of Turks believe Ankara
should apologize for the deaths during Ottoman rule in 1915 and
describe them as genocide.
Another 9.1 percent were in favor of an apology without admitting to genocide.
Turkey rejects calls to recognize the killings as genocide, claiming
up to 500,000 Armenians died in fighting and of starvation after
Armenians sided with invading Russian troops. It alleges a comparable
number of Turks were also killed.
Opposition party slams Erdogan’s government
Leader of Turkey’s main opposition party claimed Tuesday that the
ruling AK Party government has covered up corruption allegations
against four former ministers.
“A file that revealed all the corruption cases has been covered up by
the AK Party, which is now an abettor,” Kemal Kilicdaroglu, chairman
of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), told a meeting of his party’s
parliamentary group Tuesday.
In May 2014, a 14-member inquiry committee began its investigation
into corruption allegations against former economy minister Zafer
Caglayan, former interior minister Muammar Guler, former urbanization
minister Erdogan Bayraktar and former EU affairs minister Egemen
Bagis.
The committee later voted not to send the four ministers to trial
before the Supreme Council, also known as the Constitutional Court,
over corruption allegations with nine members voted against a trial
while five voted in favor.
Last week, the Turkish parliament, in order to give the final decision
over the trial of the ministers, held a secret parliamentary vote,
which rejected calls for legal proceedings against all four former
ministers at Turkey’s top court.
The CHP leader asked the public to grant his party a four-year period
of power. “You will see how Turkey can be governed, how the rights of
the people will be ensured, and how the bribe takers are brought to
account,” he said.
Turkey will be go to the polls for parliamentary elections in June
2015 to elect 550 new members of the Turkish parliament.
(AFP, Anadolu, Al-Akhbar)