Turkish author: Will the terrible human rights record in Turkey be extended to 2019?

NEWS DESK

The Turkish writer refers to Erdogan's threats to launch an attack on North-East areas of Syria during his speech with the Islamic Cooperation Organization Conference in Istanbul on December 14.

The writer notes that according to some observers, these statements should be seen as a trick of Erdogan to influence the local elections scheduled for March 31 next.

The author asserts that it is not a secret that the Turkish financial indicators for the first quarter of 2019 do not look promising. Therefore, Erdogan needs to divert public attention to foreign policy and mobilize citizens on security issues by mobilizing nationalist sentiment.

Despite the European Court of Human Rights ruling in November that the Turkish government had illegally imprisoned Salah al-Din Dimirtach, the European Union's EU Rapporteur, Katie Perry, wrote a report in which it acknowledged that some of the blame in the Dimertach case rested with the European Union for its failing to put pressure on the Turkish government more forcefully in the Dimertach case and the issue of imprisoned parliamentarians

Katie Perry said, he is imprisoned and denied freedom of expressing his right in politics, for what? Because he represents millions of people in Turkey who want peace and equal rights, she added, Salah, you are not alone".

The European Parliament and the institutions of Europe appear to be following Dimertach case in comparison to other rights violations in Turkey.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mujerini presented an unusual appearance on December 11 on the parliamentary platform to address the issue.

"The fate of Dimertach is an issue that I think lies close to the hearts of many of us for many years he has been the interlocutor of many and a key figure in the democratic debate in Turkey," she said.

"I think it is not only Turkey's responsibility, but also Turkey's interest to immediately follow the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights," Federica Mugreni concluded.

This is not surprising, says the author. There is no freedom of press in Turkey, in the true sense.

"Turkey is among the world's most countries which has imprisoned the biggest number of journalists, and Turkey is still the worst jailer in the world"

Since the Turkish president was the most vocal critic of the assassination of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashigji, his government continued to imprison more journalists than anyone else on the planet. CPJ found that at least 68 journalists were jailed for their work in Turkey.

It should be noted that Turkey is one of the countries whose citizens seek refuge in Europe. Turkey has been among the top five countries in the world over the past few months, according to a report released by the Office for European Asylum Support on 11 December.

"The month of October 2018 also saw the highest number of applications (2,880) applications from Turkish citizens, recording a rise of 9% from the previous month."

Statistics show that most of those seeking asylum in Europe are young professionals with university degrees. This indicates that Turkey is facing a severe mental migration.

The campaign showed solidarity with Turkish academics expelled from their universities to sign the peace declaration in January 2016 and condemned a military campaign in Kurdish-majority cities and towns.

In the week before Gorsu, Sri Saria Onder, a former member of parliament for the Democratic Peoples' Party and a well-known peace negotiator in negotiations between the government and Kurdish guerrillas, was put on trial on 6 December for 3 to 6 Years of prison

On December 4, the court of appeal sentenced Dimirtash to four years and eight months in prison.

The verdict was hastily overturned by the decision of the European Court of Human Rights and made the release of Dimertach impossible. According to the judgment of the European Court, the prolonged "detention" of Dimertach is based on "grounds that can not be considered" sufficient "to justify its duration.

All these developments send a clear message to all peace activists and civil society: exhibitions in Turkey will not be allowed and will be severely punished.

The author concludes his article by saying that there is no doubt that Turkey will close in 2018 with a record of depression, given the increasing deficit of democracy, the next year does not look promising, and one can only expect more trouble.

H

ANHA