Council of Europe warns Turkey to embrace democratic values

In a recent report on the state of democracy in Europe, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) cited Turkey's serious shortcomings with respect to fundamental democratic values and said that it is closely monitoring the constitutional changes in Turkey. It also asked for a complete overhaul of the military coup Constitution.

PACE will appoint a new rapporteur on Turkey this month to write a comprehensive report according to the new rules of procedure adopted in the assembly.

“This report will deal with the current constitutional reform” in Turkey, the monitoring committee draft report said.

“The full revision of the 1982 Constitution which, despite repeated revisions, still bears the marks of the 1980 military coup d’état, and a comprehensive review of the law on political parties, are required in order to bring these texts fully into line with European standards,” the report underlined.

Turkey is still under post-monitoring dialogue with the Council of Europe, the largest intergovernmental organization in Europe championing the rule of law, human rights and democracy. PACE closed its full monitoring procedure for Turkey in April 2004 but paced the country under post-monitoring dialogue in which Turkey honoring its obligations and commitments to the Council of Europe were being still assessed.

The monitoring committee was overseeing progress on 12 outstanding issues listed by PACE when it closed full monitoring. These include lowering Turkey’s 10 percent election threshold, reform of local and regional government, freedom of expression and association (especially of political parties), training of the security forces and judges, and the policy of “zero tolerance” on torture, as well as the protection of minorities.

The monitoring committee published its last report on Turkey in 2008 and was critical of shortcomings in various areas. In its current report, PACE criticized Turkey on media freedoms as well. It said freedom of expression is not fully respected in Turkey, while numerous prosecutions or even physical threats to journalists still occur. Bulgaria, Monaco and the “former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” are also under post-monitoring investigation by PACE.

The assembly confirmed that the last national elections in Turkey in 2007 were free and fair and in compliance with the Council of Europe and European standards. It also stressed the high voter turnout confirmed that confidence in the democratic process exists in Turkey. It took notice of the fact that the current Parliament is more representative of the country’s political diversity than the previous one, representing about 90 percent of the opinions of the electorate.

Party closures and high threshold

It criticized, however, the failure of Turkish authorities to comply with previous calls to lower the 10 percent election threshold. Stressing that representative democracy is a core principle of a democratic system, the PACE report underlined, although substantial progress has been made overall with regard to electoral reform, the assembly is concerned that serious shortcomings have been noted in the electoral process in some Council of Europe member states.

The report also lambasted Turkey for not resolving issues with respect to the closure of political parties in Turkey. “The lawsuit against the ruling party sparked a renewed debate about the legal basis for the closure of political parties in the country and show that, despite the above-mentioned reforms, the issue of dissolution of political parties in Turkey is not closed” the PACE report underlined.

The European body reiterated that, in pursuing such reforms, “the Turkish authorities should in particular envisage introducing stricter criteria for the dissolution of political parties, such as condoning or inciting violence or overt threats to fundamental democratic values, in line with the guidelines of the Venice Commission.” It praised reforms adopted after the political crisis that erupted as a result of the failure of the Turkish Parliament to elect a new president of the republic.