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AS (2016) CR 34
Addendum 1

2016 ORDINARY SESSION

________________________

(Fourth part)

REPORT

Thirty-fourth sitting

Thursday 13 October 2016 at 10 a.m.

Current affairs debate:

Situation in Turkey in the light of the attempted coup d’État

The following texts were submitted for inclusion in the official report by members who were present in the Chamber but were prevented by lack of time from delivering them.

Ms ANTTILA (Finland) – This year has been a very challenging one for Turkey. Several bloody terrorist attacks and an attempted coup d’état have shaken Turkish society to its core. Innocent people have lost their lives in these cowardly attacks aimed at destabilising Turkish unity, creating paranoia and spreading fear. I express my deepest condolences and support to the Turkish people affected by these events.

The terrorist attacks and the attempted coup were attacks against democracy and the only way to respond to these events is with more democracy. The Council of Europe should do its utmost to support Turkey in resolving the situation in a democratic way, with respect for the rule of law.

I can understand that Turkey is under enormous pressure at the moment to find those guilty of the attempted coup, but I am not sure that it has been done in the most constructive way. The basis for the rule of law is that everyone is innocent until proven guilty. However, many people have been wrongly labelled as terrorists and, as a result, have been removed from their jobs or have found that they no longer have the right to work, or have even had their passports confiscated. In a democracy, there is room for many ideas, including ideas that you do not share. One cannot be accused of being an enemy just because one happens to share the ideas of the opponent. Thoughts are not acts and thus not crimes.

In the past few years, Turkey has increased its support to the Council of Europe and its development has also allowed Turkey to close the monitoring procedure and become part of post-monitoring. The main idea behind the Assembly’s monitoring procedure is to ensure that member States fulfil their commitments in relation to our core values and that they do so with integrity and determination. However, the democratic process is never finished and, as we have seen in the past, it can also undergo changes as it develops. That is why we regularly monitor all member States.

Turkey is an important member of this Organisation, a strategic partner for the European Union and an important gateway to the Middle East. Turkey has done more than its share in tackling the refugee crisis. I therefore think we should continue to have a constructive approach to Turkey. Naming and shaming does not resolve anything, but neither should we refrain from judging actions that put human rights, democracy or the rule of law in danger. Our responsibility goes beyond the Turkish authorities and we must keep reminding Turkey of its commitments and its responsibility towards its people.

Mr HONKONEN (Finland) – Turkey has been a significant member of the Council of Europe for many years. The latest events in Turkey are not something that we would like to see. These terrible terrorist attacks and the coup attempt this summer have been shocking for the whole of Europe. 

At the beginning of this debate, it was said that in this Chamber, we are all democrats. We can watch the developments in Turkey only through the lens of our common values. A coup d’état is always against democracy. It is against all Turkish citizens and against all those who have chosen to make the decisions. These violations are contrary to civil rights and transparency. The answer for Turkey is not revenge. Democracy must become stronger via democracy.

In order to stabilise the situation, Turkey and the people of Turkey will need those values and those principles which have been recently attacked: transparency; civil rights; the liberty to speak and to be heard; freedom of the press; the liberty of science; freedom of religion, of the media and of overall practices of democracy; these are key elements to the stabilisation and the future development of Turkey. 

Ms JOHNSSON FORNARVE (Sweden) – I am deeply concerned over the developments in Turkey, especially with regard to human rights and freedom of expression.

Various representatives of the Turkish Government have declared that the mass arrests that have been taking place and the attacks on the media were necessary measures to take as a result of the military coup in July 2016. However, we have to remember that development in Turkey has been going in the wrong direction for a long time.

Violence already increased after the elections in June 2015, when the opposition party, the HDP, entered parliament with a progressive agenda for gender equality and justice: over 400 of the HDP's offices were attacked and thousands of journalists, academics and activists were arrested. The violence, particularly in eastern Turkey, increased. In several Kurdish cities, states of emergency and curfews were introduced and residents could not access water, electricity and health care. Hundreds of Kurds have been killed and thousands forced to leave their homes. Amnesty International stated in a report that the Turkish security forces endangered the lives of 200,000 civilians and condemned the actions as collective punishment.

The military coup must of course be strongly condemned. It is obvious that those responsible must be brought to justice, but to strike indiscriminately against all opposition is not justice. According to official sources, 16,000 people have been detained and Amnesty International reports that torture is taking place; 60,000 State employees have been dismissed; many academics have received travel bans; over a hundred different media have been closed down; journalists have been jailed; and HDP parliamentarians have been accused and are risking imprisonment.

The way forward for Turkey is not more violence and mass arrests: the road ahead should see an end to the violence and respect for human rights. The Turkish authorities must show restraint and respect for the rule of law when carrying out the necessary investigations. They must grant fair trials for all those detained and release the persons against whom they have no concrete evidence.

Ms NAGHDALYAN (Armenia) – Today’s discussion is the best evidence that the situation in Turkey remains one of the “hot spots” of the international community’s attention. We all realise that the volatile situation in the country can be explosive not only for the region, but in a larger sense. I am from Armenia, a country directly bordering Turkey that feels the negative consequences immediately. What is the situation today, after the attempted coup d’état?

The scope and depth of President Erdoğan’s reaction is devastating, leaving the country no hope for any democratic processes. The Turkish authorities started to use the coup attempt as an excuse for the crackdown in the country. Thousands of military officers, judges, educators and civil servants have been suddenly arrested or fired. The recently prolonged state of emergency means the suspension of basic human rights and there have been discussions on reintroducing the death penalty. The authorities closed down several Kurdish TV and radio channels, including one for kids. Can you imagine – Turkey sees a source of threat in a cartoon channel?

The conclusion is inescapable: Turkey is becoming more autocratic and unpredictable. Just recently, we were discussing the state of play with regards to the functioning of democratic institutions in Turkey. As you may remember, various standpoints were expressed during our debates. We were very concerned about the negative developments in the country and supported reopening the monitoring process. Today, this issue is more crucial because of the U-turn that Turkey has made on its path to democratisation. The Turkish authorities totally disregard the rule of law and are using the situation to fight their political opponents and national minorities in the country. Therefore, Minister Çavuşoğlu would be better concentrating on these serious problems rather than sharing his personal stories with the Assembly.

Another of the Minister’s misleading remarks of yesterday was his vision of the Nagorno-Karabakh negotiation process, which lies in a parallel reality, with the illusive withdrawal from five regions. In reality, the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue is aimed at the determination of the final status of Nagorno-Karabakh through the legally binding expression of its people’s will.

The Minister also touched upon Armenian-Turkish relations. If Turkey had intended to normalise its relations with Armenia, it would have ratified and started to implement the Zurich Protocols signed in 2009. 

Mr NISSINEN (Sweden) – The dramatic and tragic events in Turkey this summer have led me to make the following remarks.

First, a military coup d’état is always wrong, whether it succeeds or not. It runs afoul of the most basic principles of democracy. Secondly, those who are responsible for such a deed must be held accountable for their actions. Thirdly, any prosecution of possible wrongdoers must be in accordance with national and international law, such as the Council of Europe's Convention on Human Rights and other instruments.

In this context, Turkey's Ambassador to Sweden published an article in a Swedish daily, where he guaranteed unconditionally, on behalf of his government, that no breach whatsoever would be committed by the Turkish authorities against national and international law when it came to the treatment of those arrested,  including under the present state of emergency. Similar newspaper articles were published in other countries. We therefore have a clear yardstick against which we must, in the months to come, scrupulously measure the actions of the Turkish government, and we also count on our Turkish colleagues in this Assembly to help us in this.

But beyond that, we expect Turkey to dispel the impression that we now have that Mr Erdoğan is seizing the present moment in order to transform Turkey into a fully fledged dictatorship. This Assembly would be strictly and totally against such a development, as we showed in the wake of three military coups in Turkey from the 1960s onwards.

Mr SIMMS (Canada, Observer) – On 15 July, when certain factions of the Turkish military announced a coup d’état and seized strategic bridges in Istanbul and major roads, police buildings and the national broadcaster in Ankara, and before the government regained control of the country on 17 July, Turkey’s allies, including Canada, responded quickly. We all expressed support for the democratically elected government and condemned any effort to overthrow it by force of arms. The Canadian Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister issued statements in support of democracy in Turkey.

Nevertheless, the developments in Turkey following the attempted coup d’état are worrying. Since 16 July, approximately 70 000 government workers, judges, military officers and journalists have been dismissed from their positions; 18 000 people have been detained or arrested, including two Canadian-Turkish dual citizens who have not been granted consular access; civil servants and security personnel have had their leave cancelled by the government and overseas travel prohibited; some restrictions have been placed on the travel of academics; a special prosecutions unit has been established to expedite trials and sentencing; and President Erdoğan has indicated an intention to reintroduce the death penalty to punish the perpetrators of the attempted coup. I emphasise the fact, well known in this Assembly, that reintroducing the death penalty would be a violation of Turkey’s international commitments.

Of course, Canada respects the need for thorough investigations and prosecutions against the perpetrators of the recent attempted coup, in accordance with Turkish and international law. But Canadians are concerned by the reports of indiscriminate mass dismissals and detentions, as well as vigilante actions, intimidation, and improper treatment of accused perpetrators. Canadians are also concerned about the implications with respect to the rule of law and due process during the state of emergency in Turkey, and especially concerned by President Erdoğan’s statements on the reintroduction of the death penalty.

I reassert that Turkey’s allies will support its democratically-elected government and, at the same time, invite the Turkish authorities to take into account the concerns expressed by their allies regarding the protection of human rights, the rule of law and the respect of due process. We will follow the fate of each State functionary, each journalist, each judge, each teacher, each academic who is imprisoned or has been sacked from their job on the grounds of an alleged complicity in the military insurrection. And we will continue to closely follow the Kurdish issue in Turkey to try to prevent any further wrongdoing against that ethnicity.

We cannot observe in silence the present seeming drift of Turkey into a one-man rule system. The foremost task of this Assembly is to safeguard democracy and human rights. I personally stand by the Turkish people in insisting on justice for all. I very much hope this Assembly will as well.

Mr VILLUMSEN (Denmark) – I was among the first parliamentarians in Denmark to condemn the coup attempt. I condemned it right away during the night. But today, it is clear that the coup attempt and the state of emergency procedure are being misused.
 
Journalists have been put in prison and media closed even though they never supported the coup. Parliamentarians, mayors and councillors have been charged with absurd charges – even the members of the Turkish opposition party, the HDP here in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, have been charged for using their freedom of expression. That is unacceptable. They need our support. The HDP took a clear stand against the coup, but now its members have been charged as well.

Yesterday, I talked with a Turkish journalist who has been sacked because her media organisation – the popular news Channel IMC – had been closed down. She was in despair because it will be almost impossible for her and her colleagues to get new jobs. But she was even more choked by the lack of reaction from Europe. We do not help Turkey by turning a blind eye to the oppression and the charges against our colleagues from the Turkish opposition.

There is an elephant in this room. This elephant is the European Union-Turkey Agreement on refugees. To keep refugees out, human rights violations are accepted by the European governments. This is cynical, but also short-sighted. More than 350 000 civilians have been forced to flee their homes due to the civil war in the Kurdish part of Turkey. Tens of thousands of public employees have been sacked. The situation in the country will explode if human rights and the rule of law are not respected. It is urgent to hold the Turkish Government accountable for its commitment to the Council of Europe. It is urgent to act.