Agence France Presse
January 27, 2015 Tuesday 4:38 PM GMT
Turkey’s rights record under fire at UN
Geneva, Jan 27 2015
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 a so-called Universal Periodic Review 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
“indispensible” 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 Buelent Arinc
told the council.
While acknowledging there were some journalists in Turkish prisons, he
insisted their detention was “not related to their journalistic
activities.”
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.
Egypt 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
demonstrators 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
protestors 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
reorganise 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.”
Others criticised Turkey 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.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress