Top EU officials rebuked Turkey on Thursday over its arrests of journalists and academics and the long pre-trial detention of a Kurdish politician, holding a forthright press conference with Turkey’s foreign minister in Ankara that swiftly turned tense.
Fotoğraf: Reuters
European Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn emphasized the importance of political dialogue. But he said the bloc was troubled over the arrest of journalists, human rights defenders and civil society activists.
“Criminal and judicial proceedings must be based on the presumption of innocence. Journalists and civil society must be able to do their important work,” Hahn told the press conference alongside Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.
Hahn was referring to jailed rights activist Osman Kavala, and 14 figures including journalists and academics detained last week in an investigation accusing them of a bid to unseat the government through mass protests, the Gezi Protest, in 2013. 13 of them were released.
Mogherini: Turkey should follow the ECHR ruling and release Demirtas
High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, at the press conference, also took Turkey to task over the detentions of academics and said she hoped that a detained former co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), Selahattin Demirtas, would be released soon.
Cavusoglu replied swiftly to Hahn’s remarks, calling on the bloc to stop defending ‘those who are engaging in activities with the aim of removing Turkey’s democratically elected government.’
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled on Tuesday that Turkey should swiftly process the legal case of Demirtas, saying his pre-trial detention had gone on longer than could be justified.
“Turkey should follow the ECHR ruling,” Mogherini said. “There are no double standards here. We have high standards, whether you like it or not.”