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36 I Southeast Europe bne April 2018
The sweeping purges have even led to the arrest of the chairman of Amnesty International Turkey, Taner Kilic. Photo: Amnesty International
UN calls on Turkey to end its “chilling” prolonged state of emergency
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The United Nations on March
20 called on Turkey to end its 20-month-old state of emergency, saying it was having a "chilling effect" on Turkish society by demonstrating that any dissent would be punished.
Introduced after the failure of an attempted military coup in July 2016 the emergency powers regime allows President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to rule by decree. Some 160,000 people have been arrested, while approximately the same number of civil servants have been dismissed, according to the UN human rights office. Mass arrests, torture, interference with the judiciary, arbitrary sackings and other abuses that in some cases have amounted to "collective punishment" have taken place, the office said.
Turkey's foreign ministry responded that the UN report was packed with unfounded allegations. It compared
the criticism to the propaganda that is put out by anti-Ankara terrorist groups and said UN officials were ignoring "the
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severe and multiple terrorist threats" Turkey is facing.
However, the report urged Turkey to "promptly end the state of emergency and restore the normal functioning of institutions and the rule of law".
Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, says that the numbers of people arrested or dismissed under the state of emergency are "just staggering".
the human rights of a very large number of people," Zeid said.
Even the chairman of Amnesty International Turkey, Taner Kilic, has been arrested during Turkey’s sweeping purges, with prosecutors accusing him of “membership of a terrorist organisation” in relation to alleged activities relating to coup plotters.
Since the state of emergency crackdown began Turkey has regularly come
"The emergency powers regime allows President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to rule by decree”
"Teachers, judges and lawyers dismissed or prosecuted; journalists arrested, media outlets shut down and websites blocked – clearly the successive states of emergency declared in Turkey have been used to severely and arbitrarily curtail
under fire from MEPs and Eurocrats for abusing basic human rights and sliding towards authoritarian rule. Its hopes of joining the EU in the foreseeable future lie in tatters.