“Respect for human rights has deteriorated at an alarming speed in recent months in the context of Turkey’s fight against terrorism” said Nils Muižnieks, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights at the end of a nine- day visit to Istanbul, Diyarbakir and Ankara. The topics of the visit were balancing security and human rights in the South East, freedom of expression and the administration of justice.
Recalling that Turkey had the right and duty to fight terrorism, the Commissioner unequivocally condemned all terrorist actions and violence targeting Turkish citizens and the state, including by the PKK and Daesh. "However, Turkey must avoid straying from human rights and rule of law principles in this fight, which would also ultimately serve the interests of these very organisations”.
The most striking feature of anti-terrorism operations since August 2015 has been the round-the-clock, open-ended and increasingly long curfews declared in entire neighbourhoods or cities in South-Eastern Turkey. “I have serious doubts about the legality of these curfews, a question yet to be examined by the Venice Commission, Turkey’s Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights. An administrative decision based on a law that does not even mention the word ‘curfew’ is a very weak basis on which to impose such drastic restrictions of basic human rights, for a huge population and for months on end“. (more...)