Human rights issues could stall Turkey’s efforts

TONY BLAIR, in a speech to a joint meeting of Congress in Washington (the Irish Examiner, July 18) said: “If you engage in the systematic and gross abuse of human rights in defiance of the UN charter, you cannot expect to enjoy the same privileges as those that conform to it.”

We are just wondering if Turkey is also included in Mr Blair’s speech? The European Court of Human Rights ruled Leyla Zana’s trial unfair in July 2001. In its bid for membership in the European Union, the Turkish government adopted numerous reforms in August 2002, among them the right of Turkish citizens to judicial review of any verdict in a trial judged unfair by the European Court of Human Rights. But the new law specifies that it is not retroactive, preventing Leyla Zana from invoking it.

In May, the Committee of Ministers publicly and strongly urged Turkey to comply with its “repeated demands” to respond to the July 2001 ruling of the European Court of Human Rights, which found that Kurdish former parliamentary deputies Hatip Dicle, Orhan Dogan, Selim Sadak, and Leyla Zana had been sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment in 1994 after an unfair trial.

The government of Turkey failed to comply with the EU’s demands. In fact, a provision of the August legislation deliberately blocked the possible release of the deputies.

The new legislation required Turkish courts to review verdicts that the ECHR finds violate the European Convention on Human Rights, but a proviso denied this right to past applicants to the ECHR, who included the four jailed former parliamentarians.

The Committee of Ministers adopted a further resolution calling on Turkey to take steps to respond to the succession of judgements at the ECHR concerning killings, torture, ‘disappearances’, and destruction of property committed by the Turkish security forces.

Turkey long feared war in Iraq could lead to an independent Kurdish state in the north of Iraq, with incalculable effects on its own restive Kurdish minority.

Under pressure from the US and the EU to find a peaceful solution to its Kurdish problem, Turkey’s parliament began debating an amnesty bill to persuade PKK fighters to lay down weapons and return to Turkey. However, an amnesty should be with accordance of both sides.

We call on the public and human rights organisations in Ireland to raise the issue with Turkish authorities, as well as with Mr Ahern, urging them to seek a solution to Kurdish issue and avoid renewed armed conflict.

Turkey must build the path leading to the EU and thus ensure full democracy.

Latif Serhildan,

Co-ordinator,

Kurdistan Solidarity Ireland,

10 Upper Camden St.,

Dublin 2.