 |
HRW: Kurdish initiative ‘most hopeful indication’ in 2009
“The government’s public announcement in summer 2009, and to the Turkish parliament in November, that it was committed to ensuring the human rights of Kurds in Turkey, was the most hopeful indication that a long-stalled reform process might be restarted,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in its World Report 2010 released earlier this week.
“The realization of a plan to uphold minority rights for Turkey’s different ethnic and religious groups would represent a fundamental departure from the variously assimilationist or repressive policies of the past, and offers the possibility of advancing the rights of all groups,” HRW said.
The 612-page report, the organization’s 20th annual review of human rights practices around the globe, summarizes major human rights trends in more than 90 nations and territories worldwide, reflecting the extensive investigative work carried out in 2009 by HRW staff.
“The obstacles to change remain clear,” HRW, however, noted, before listing that: “Numerous provisions of the current constitution restrict human rights and fundamental freedoms, and a new constitution must be a priority. The Constitutional Court’s decision in December to close down the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party [DTP] for separatist activities constituted a setback to efforts to solve the Kurdish problem in Turkey. There were continuing prosecutions and convictions of individuals who expressed nonviolent critical opinion or political views on the Kurdish issue, among other subjects viewed as controversial. Restrictions on press freedom remain a concern. Decisions of Turkey’s Court of Cassation [Supreme Court of Appeals] continued to flout international human rights law and the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, and demonstrate that the judiciary remains a site of institutionalized resistance to reform.”
HRW noted that “the struggle to assert civilian control over the military in Turkey continues,” and added, “A June change to the law on military courts ensures that military personnel will be tried in civilian courts for serious offenses, including forming criminal gangs and plotting coups.”
However, HRW’s report didn’t include an important development on the issue of military personnel being tried in civilian courts as it was prepared and released before a Thursday ruling by the Constitutional Court on the issue.
On Thursday, the Constitutional Court overturned the law allowing top military officials to be put on trial in civilian courts, a move fiercely opposed by the armed forces at a time of escalated tension with the government.
The Constitutional Court was unanimous in its ruling on the legislation, dubbed by many a “civilian revolution” when it was passed in the European Union candidate country.
The law, aimed at meeting EU membership criteria, would have given civilian courts the power to prosecute military personnel accused of crimes against national security, constitutional violations and attempts to topple the government during peacetime for the first time.
Turkey’s hyper-secularist opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) challenged the law in the Constitutional Court.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| AMANDA PAUL |  |
||
| Ukraine: a lost country | |||
| MÜMTAZER TÜRKÖNE |  |
||
| The 52nd anniversary of May 27 | |||
| ABDULLAH BOZKURT |  |
||
| Turkey and Mexico: Distant yet so close | |||
| BERİL DEDEOĞLU |  |
||
| Yemen and beyond | |||
| ARZU KAYA URANLI |  |
||
| On Memorial Day a few words to make your day memorable | |||
| ABDÜLHAMİT BİLİCİ |  |
||
| Google kidnaps Gül! | |||
| CUMALİ ÖNAL |  |
||
| Critical months for Egypt | |||
| DOĞU ERGİL |  |
||
| Qualities of power | |||
| İHSAN YILMAZ |  |
||
| The Egyptian elections, Islam and Islamists | |||
| EMRE USLU |  |
||
| Operational errors | |||
| MARKAR ESAYAN |  |
||
| There is need for a new initiative | |||
| JOOST LAGENDIJK |  |
||
| Europe can’t have it all. Or can it? | |||
| HASAN KANBOLAT |  |
||
| Are Russian tourists being discouraged from visiting Turkey? | |||
| MELİH ARAT |  |
||
| Handmade | |||
| KLAUS JURGENS |  |
||
| Back to the ’80s | |||
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
