NGO Presses Kerry to Discuss Turkish Human Rights

Photo Credit: AP

In an open letter to Sec. John Kerry ahead of his first visit to the Middle East as Secretary of State, Amnesty International urges him to address the human rights violations in Turkey. The letter states that the U.S. could do more to improve the “grave” human rights situation there and that “part of being a good friend means being honest.” Amnesty argues that “the Turkish government knows that its international reputation has been damaged,” and that Kerry should take this “historic opportunity to support human rights” by discussing them. Specifically, the letter suggests that Kerry address laws that violate “basic rights of freedom of expression,” and anti-terror laws currently used to prosecute people for their beliefs. Amnesty also points to Turkey’s “Kafkaesque trials” that use “bloated anti-terrorism statutes” and result in lengthy prison sentences for tens of thousands, “including students, human rights activists, and their lawyers.” Amnesty recently reported that Turkey prosecutes citizens for “offensive speech” and the Committee to Protect Journalists called it “the world’s biggest prison for media.”

Meanwhile, in the International Affairs Review, Robert Ellis writes that “Turkey has signaled a shift from European to Islamic values.” He quotes Turkish professor Nuray Mert, who says that Turkey has failed at democratization “because Islamic conservatism represses the liberal democratic culture of rights and freedom.” Ellis states that Turkey’s desire to join the EU has faded and that EU membership is more an economic development instrument. He notes that the Turkish Prime Minister’s chief adviser Ibrahim Kalın, in a speech, “rejected the European model of secular democracy and pluralism, which he believes has little traction in the Arab and larger Muslim world.” Ellis concludes that “talk of Turkey’s EU membership is illusory, as the best that can be hoped for is a modus vivendi based on mutual interest.”