Human Rights Watch Warns of 'Authoritarian Drift' in Turkey

[Syt]

http://www.voanews.com/content/human-rights-watch-warns-of-authoritarian-drift-in-turkey/2466105.html

Human Rights Watch Warns of 'Authoritarian Drift' in Turkey

ISTANBUL— Human Rights Watch has warned that Turkey is drifting towards authoritarianism. The U.S.-based group claims in a new report that the rule of law in being eroded under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan -- who, it says, has launched a crackdown on dissent and media freedom.

The 38-page Human Rights Watch report said President Erdogan and the ruling Justice and Development Party were taking far reaching steps to weaken the rule of law, control the media and Internet, and clamp down on critics and protesters. The report's author, Emma Sinclair Webb, Human Rights Watch senior Turkey researcher, said the changes were deeply worrying.

"Basically over the last year, we've seen the Turkish government respond to political opposition with an extremely heavy handed approach, which is basically willing to sacrifice the rule of law, to erode judicial independence and really tear up the rule book and wield the stick against political oppositionists," said Webb.

The report said the rolling back of human rights accelerated after last year's nationwide anti-government protests against Prime Minister Erdogan, who was elected president in August.

President Erdogan insisted the protests had little to do with democratic dissent, but were rather a coup attempt. Sinclair Webb said that since the unrest, there has been a crackdown on the media and the introduction of draconian laws controlling the Internet, along with widespread prosecutions.

"There are some very serious prosecutions of protestors, for even attempting a coup against the government. They face a possible life imprisonment. So you have still got the crackdown against the Gezi protestors continuing, a year on. And very little justice for those who were victims of the massive police violence during the Gezi protests," said Webb.

The report also highlighted what it says is the steady undermining of the rule of law. It cited last December's anti-corruption probe by the judiciary targeting senior ministers and their families. The government said it was an attempt to overthrow it and pushed through parliament legislation giving it special powers to exercise more control over the judiciary.  Much of the legislation was later overturned by the Constitutional Court.

Sinclair Webb warned that the government was encroaching on the powers of the judiciary on a massive scale.

"They want to be able to control judicial appointments, and they basically have shown signs of wanting to have prosecutors and judges who simply do the government's bidding and simply act according to the government's interests. Once you start creating a judiciary who does that, you lose all independence of the judiciary and fundamentally undermine the rule of law," said Webb.

The government insists that special powers are needed because the country is facing an unprecedented threat to democracy. President Erdogan claims that a parallel state run by followers of a former ally, Muslim cleric Fetullah Gulen, is seeking to overthrow him. Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in the United States, denies the allegations.

Human Rights Watch did praise the government for its efforts to end the three-decade conflict with the Kurdish rebel group, the PKK. The report highlighted government reforms giving minorities greater rights. But it warned that peace efforts have stagnated and called for the release of the many non-violent Kurdish political activists who have been held in jail for years, many of whom have not been convicted of a crime.

The report also cited the need to a lift the statute of limitations on political murders and torture, which is preventing redress for hundreds of victims and their families.

Thus far, neither the government or the president have commented on the report.

http://www.worldbulletin.net/news/145385/erdogan-european-ruling-on-religious-classes-wrong

Erdogan: European ruling on religious classes 'wrong'

The Turkish president rejects the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruling of two weeks ago which found in favour of some Turkish Alevi community members who complained that compulsory religious education in schools is wrong and attendance should be at the parents' discretion.

Speaking at a symposium on combatting drugs in Istanbul, Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended religious education in schools by saying that children with a lack of religion and ethics education try to fill the gap with other things. "Sometimes this is drug, sometimes violence, sometimes organized violence turned into terror".

The existence of religious culture and ethics classes must not be open for discussion said Erdogan. He added religious education in schools helps in the fight against "drug addiction, terror, violence, racism, anti-Semitism and Islam-phobia".

The ECHR ruling came after complaints of some Alevi faith (unorthodox minority branch of Islam) families, regarding the content of compulsory classes in religion and ethics in schools, which they said was based on the Sunni understanding of Islam.

The ruling recommends that Turkey remedies the situation without delay, in particular by introducing a system whereby pupils could be exempted from religion and ethics classes without their parents having to disclose their own religious or philosophical convictions.

Drug abuse

President Erdogan said that 180 million people in the world use drugs and that 75 million are drug-dependent. He said that at least 2.7 percent of the Turkish population (of 76 million) had used illegal substances at least once.

Erdogan said that actually a terror issue is threatening the peace in the world. But, "You see that everybody speaks about the results and not the reasons of that," Erdogan said.

In addition, Erdogan asked "Why European friends did not bother about the terror organization, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)? "Because there was no "Islam" word in front of that terror organization's name. They didn't have anything to do with Islam".

The PKK is a Kurdish political and military organization founded in 1978, and since then has conducted many terror attacks in which thousands of people in Turkey died.

The PKK is listed as terrorist organization by United States, the European Union, NATO and Turkey.

International Symposium on Drug Policy and Public Health

A thousand participants from over 50 different countries are attending the three day symposium on drug policy in Turkey.

The Turkish Green Crescent Society, a nongovernmental organization that endeavors to protect society and youth from harmful habits organised the symposium.

The symposium is expected to strengthen national coordination among different organizations, such as the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Family and Social Policies, the Ministry of Youth and Sport, the Ministry of National Education and other related institutions.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/Default.aspx?PageID=238&NID=38021&NewsCatID=393

Christianity no longer a religion, says Turkish minister

Christianity has ceased to be a religion but has become a culture of its own, Turkish Environment and Urbanism Minister Erdoğan Bayraktar said at a recent conference hosted by the ruling Justice and Development Party's (AKP) Women's Group.

"The biggest three countries in the world are not Muslim countries. China, India – only the U.S. believes in a single God. Spirituality and religious feelings are weakening," Bayraktar said.

"There are 2.5 billion Christians in the world," Bayraktar said. "Christianity is no longer a religion. It's a culture now. But that is not what a religion is like. A religion teaches; it is a form of life that gives one peace and happiness. That is what they want to turn [Islam] into as well."

Also, it's now forbidden to show up in school with tattoos, dyed hair or piercings.

[jimmy olsen]

I don't think anyone here is surprised by this. It's been a rather obvious progression.

[Martinus]

We should kick Hungary out of the EU. Their prime ministe recently said that his preferred model of government is that of Russia, Turkey and China. We should help him to get closer with his new friends by releasing him from the EU liberal yoke.

[Martinus]

I don't think anyone here is surprised by this. It's been a rather obvious progression.

What about Raz?

[Eddie Teach]

I don't think anyone here is surprised by this. It's been a rather obvious progression.

I seem to recall people thinking Turkey might be ready to join the EU soonish.

[Martinus]

I don't think anyone here is surprised by this. It's been a rather obvious progression.

I seem to recall people thinking Turkey might be ready to join the EU soonish.

Yeah. Several people said Tamas and I are dumb Eastern Europeans who always expect the worst and are Islamophobic.

[Zanza]

I had the impression in the 2000s that they developed in the right direction, it's only the last 3-5 years where AKP and Erdogan went more and more authoritarian.

[DGuller]

I had the impression in the 2000s that they developed in the right direction, it's only the last 3-5 years where AKP and Erdogan went more and more authoritarian.

Ironically, removing the power of the Turkish army to coup is what did in the hope for democracy in that country.

[grumbler]

I had the impression in the 2000s that they developed in the right direction, it's only the last 3-5 years where AKP and Erdogan went more and more authoritarian.

Ironically, removing the power of the Turkish army to coup is what did in the hope for democracy in that country.

Thank you:  a non-ironic use of the word "ironic."  And I agree on both the conclusion and the irony of it.

[Tamas]

I had the impression in the 2000s that they developed in the right direction, it's only the last 3-5 years where AKP and Erdogan went more and more authoritarian.

Ironically, removing the power of the Turkish army to coup is what did in the hope for democracy in that country.

Yeah,what a shock. Kemal, after all, knew more about how his own people worked than western intelligentsia.

[derspiess]

I had the impression in the 2000s that they developed in the right direction, it's only the last 3-5 years where AKP and Erdogan went more and more authoritarian.

Didn't take a fortune teller to predict they'd go more hardline the longer they are in power.

[KRonn]

I had the impression in the 2000s that they developed in the right direction, it's only the last 3-5 years where AKP and Erdogan went more and more authoritarian.

Ironically, removing the power of the Turkish army to coup is what did in the hope for democracy in that country.

Agreed on that, and I tend to think that the MB in Eqypt would have tried to follow the example of Erdogan at some point. Perhaps the Army leaders thought the same and so moved sooner than later.

[Sheilbh]

I had the impression in the 2000s that they developed in the right direction, it's only the last 3-5 years where AKP and Erdogan went more and more authoritarian.

I think that's true. No greater sign of growing authoritarianism than moving to a Presidential system.

Though things aren't necessarily all doom and gloom. The opposition looks a lot more competent than it's been the last 15 years which makes a difference.

[Zanza]

I had the impression in the 2000s that they developed in the right direction, it's only the last 3-5 years where AKP and Erdogan went more and more authoritarian.

Ironically, removing the power of the Turkish army to coup is what did in the hope for democracy in that country.

I can see how the laicist military could be considered the onetime hope for human rights in Turkey. But was it ever really a hope for democracy? It regularly toppled governments after all.

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

I can see how the laicist military could be considered the onetime hope for human rights in Turkey. But was it ever really a hope for democracy? It regularly toppled governments after all.

What do you do when democracy is antithetical to human rights?  A key problem in the Middle East, particularly over the past five years or so, is that "democracy" usually means "tyranny of the majority" or "tyranny of the vociferous".