Turkey to temporarily suspend
European Convention on Human
Rights after coup attempt
European Convention on Human
Rights after coup attempt
Turkey will temporarily suspend the implementation of its obligations emanating from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in line with the declaration of a state of emergency in the country, a senior government official has said, while assuring that fundamental rights and freedoms will not be affected during this period.
“France proclaimed a state of emergency, too. And they have suspended the ECHR upon article 15 of the convention,” Numan Kurtulmuş, deputy prime minister and government spokesperson, told a group of Ankara bureau chiefs of media outlets on July 21.
“A declaration of a state of emergency is not against the ECHR,” he said, adding Turkey would announce its decision to suspend the ECHR through a statement.
Article 15 of the ECHR stipulates: “In time of war or other public emergency threatening the life of the nation any High Contracting Party may take measures derogating from its obligations under this Convention to the extent strictly required by the exigencies of the situation, provided that such measures are not inconsistent with its other obligations under international law.”
The state of emergency will give the government a good opportunity to fight against coup plotters and clean the state apparatus fully of the members of the Gülenist organization, Kurtulmuş said. “I want to guarantee that fundamental rights and freedoms and normal daily life will not be affected by this. Our citizens should feel comfortable about that.”
More to come on this story as it develops.....
[July/21/2016]
Extraordinary times in Turkey
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by
MURAT YETKİN |
The biggest elimination operation in Turkish public service is under way following the failed coup attempt of July 15. It focuses on the elimination of suspected sympathizers of Fethullah Gülen from public service - not only from the military but also from the courts, the intelligence services, universities, schools, state auditing institutions, everywhere you can think of.
Gülen is an Islamist ideologue living in the U.S. who used to be one of the closest allies of President Tayyip Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party (AK Parti) but is now an archenemy. In an indictment prepared before the coup attempt – an attempt that the government says was manipulated by Gülen and performed by Gülenists in the military - it was claimed that a Gülenist network within state institutions started to develop in 1984, right after the military coup in 1980, and persisted until 2014. That is the date when Erdoğan and the ruling AK Parti cut all links with Gülen and denounced him as the head of a terrorist organization aimed at overthrowing the government.
Relations had first started to turn sour when Gülenist prosecutors and judges went as far to investigate National Intelligence Agency (MİT) head Hakan Fidan because of his secret contacts undertaken as a part of his job under (then prime minister) Erdoğan’s orders in early 2012. The final break came with corruption probes of Dec. 17 and 25 in 2013, which Erdoğan effectively saw as a coup attempt.
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General Lieutenant Metin İyidil one of the coup ringleaders. One of 25 detained officers originated from Serbian Autonomic Province of Kosovo and Metohija. Some sources call this coup the "Albanian conspiracy" because the large number of officers involved in the coup are of Shqiptar or Turkish minority originated from A.P. Kosovo and Metochia, including the pilot who shot down Russian airplane Su-24. More over, according to Turkish sources, the whole plot was operationally prepared in the USA military base "Bondsteel" located near Urosevac in NATO occupied Serbian A.P. K&M.
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The level of Gülenist infiltration into the military is understood with bitter experience. It was Chief of General Staff Hulusi Akar’s chief aide, Lieutenant Colonel Levent Türkkan, who captured his commander at gun point in his office on behalf of the coup, under the command of Major General Mehmet Dişli. Requesting a reduced punishment under the repentance law, Türkkan confessed that he has been a member of the Gülen network since his student years.
The same is true for the Gendarmerie Commander General Galip Mendi, who is now in hospital after suffering a heart attack. They were both the guards of Air Force Commander General Abidin Ünal and Fleet Commander Admiral Veysel Kösele, after they kidnapped them. Another pro-coup officer who said it was he who ordered tanks to close the Bosphorus Bridge, Brigadier Özkan Aydoğdu, has testified that he did what he thought was the right thing to do.
Erdoğan chaired two important meetings yesterday, July 20. First a National Security Board (MGK) meeting and then the cabinet meeting, both held for the first time since the coup attempt.
Extraordinary measures for extraordinary times, even according to Turkish standards, are now on the agenda now. The government is likely to bring a package to parliament that could include various measures - from declaring a state of emergency to establishing special courts to speed up the trial of coup attempt suspects, from blocking the path of their return to public service to economic measures to win popular support.
The ongoing elimination operation is huge, already reaching tens of thousands of targets. It is likely to continue. The sense in Ankara is that although the coup attempt has been crushed for now, the government still feels under threat.
Turbulence in Turkish-US ties:
The İncirlik crisis
The İncirlik crisis
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 by SELİN NASİ |
The failed coup attempt on July 15 is the latest episode in a long history of military interventions in Turkey, which has witnessed army coups, memorandums and coup attempts in 10-year intervals throughout its history. With memories still fresh from its threatening “e-memorandum” ahead of a referendum on the presidency in 2007, it wouldn’t be wrong to suggest that we are still paying for the mistakes that were committed at the time.
Addressing the nation on a TV station via the unorthodox medium of FaceTime on July 15, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that the coup attempt was “a movement from within the army encouraged by the parallel structure.” The fact that Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen – the man referred to with the euphemism “parallel structure” – has been residing in the United States since 1999 only served to strengthen the Turkish public’s widespread view that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had a hand in the coup attempt.
With the government restoring control, tweets of “Your boys couldn’t do it this time!” – a reference to an apocryphal story that the Americans welcomed the 1980 coup with the enunciation “Our boys have done it!” – began circulating. U.S. President Barack Obama’s message that it supported Turkey’s democratically-elected government was largely dismissed after arriving late. According to daily Hürriyet’s Tolga Tanış, news that many neocon experts in the U.S. had spoken in favor of the coup and that Erdoğan had already escaped abroad added fuel to the fire.
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Officers leading the bloody coup in Turkey on Friday night were told to shoot civilian protesters on sight in order to disperse crowds filling the streets. Pictured, protesters rallying against the failed coup
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The accusation brought a retort from Secretary of State John Kerry, who said the allegations would harm bilateral ties. Kerry also noted that Ankara had lodged no formal request for Gülen’s extradition but that the U.S. would evaluate any concrete evidence of the scholar’s involvement in the coup attempt. Despite this, the problems between the U.S. and Turkey have continued to increase amid a morass of disinformation.
Many have suggested a connection between Turkey’s temporary closure of the İncirlik Air Base to the coalition fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and Gülen’s potential extradition.
Those alleging U.S. involvement in the coup attempt have highlighted the role Brig. Gen. Bekir Ercan Van and nine officers at the base played in the attempt, the fact that Van requested asylum in the U.S. before being caught, the fact that jets taking off from İncirlik participated in the bombing of Ankara and the fact that airborne fuel supply planes for the jets also took off from İncirlik. As it is, Turkey justified its temporary closure of İncirlik by noting the need to reestablish control at the base.
Despite reports of a power outage at the base, İncirlik was reopened for operations. The U.S.’ special envoy on ISIL, Brett McGurk, said the operations were continuing at full speed and that in the 24 hours after the base was reopened, seven sorties on Manbij had been conducted.
The truth of the matter is that İncirlik is not just used by the U.S. but also all NATO members. At the same time, it also houses nuclear weapons, and experts have highlighted the security weaknesses that could occur due to the chaos in the military administration at the base.
But for Turkey to use the base as leverage in its disagreement with the U.S. would bring it into conflict not only with Washington, but also NATO. Such a situation would severely weaken the coalition’s fight against ISIL, which has accelerated in the wake of the attacks in Istanbul and Nice, ultimately harming Turkey’s security.
The question of Gülen’s extradition, however, will doubtlessly play an important role in determining the direction of Turkish-U.S. ties. In the event that the two allies fail to reduce the tension and foster mutual trust, the delicate balances in Syria and Iraq that are serving as the foundation for attempts at collaboration could be damaged.
The tension with the U.S. and the European Union stemming from the government’s discussions about reintroducing the death penalty against the coup plotters could spill over into the matter of democracy and human rights. Even though a correction was issued later on, Kerry’s comments that “bringing back capital punishment could harm Turkey’s NATO membership” indicate that, if necessary, Washington will not shy away from playing all its cards.
Even if the U.S. does not extradite Gülen, other measures to terminate his residence in Pennsylvania, such as canceling his green card or convincing him to head to a third country, could help calm those who believe Washington was behind the coup attempt. Amid tremendous uncertainty at the present, exiting the current turbulence would greatly benefit the two allies.
Why Europe can’t afford Turkey’s slide into authoritarian chaos
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by BARÇIN YİNANÇ |
It wasn’t surprising to hear the conspiracy theories from the opponents of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: “The failed coup played into the hands of Erdoğan so it must have been plotted by him.” But it was surprising to see this claim, which was not backed by any empirical evidence, voiced by Western colleagues.
The conviction among some foreign observers in Turkey is understandable to a certain degree. This is a country they love and it pains them to see it slide into an Islamic authoritarian regime. The future of their children is at stake, so their emotions and antipathy for Erdoğan outweigh rational analysis.
But what about observers in the West? What made some of them voice these unproven claims? Unfortunately, I put it down to orientalism and ignorance, which made them think the head of state in a country like Turkey could stage a false coup, consolidating his power at the expense of seeing hundreds of dead.
In their eyes, Turkey is a Middle Eastern country, just another third world banana republic.
Following the failed coup in Turkey I have seen postings on Facebook saying things like: “Until now I tried to convince my friends abroad that Turkey is a European country, not a Middle Eastern one; I can no longer say so.”
In her article published on CNN’s website, Jenny White, a professor of Turkish studies at Stockholm University, wrote: “Until Friday afternoon, Turkey remained a competent and stable, if problematic, country that served as a buffer between Europe and the imploding Middle East and a partner for the United States. The military action, the results of which are still unclear, took Turkey out of Europe and placed it squarely in the Middle East.”
However, the fact that the coup failed proves that Turkey is not like any other Middle Eastern country, where power can change hands at gunpoint.
Having said all this, from the earliest hours of the coup some of us predicted that it would be averted but also that it would unfortunately consolidate Erdoğan’s authoritarian rule. That of course does not bode well for Turkish democracy.
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One major, whose messages appeared in a file collated by prosecutors in Istanbul, confirmed that he had opened fire on a crowd and killed up to 15 people
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The refugee crisis, as well as the terrorism of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), has shown that Europe cannot remain immune to the implosion of the Middle East. The dialogue and cooperation that has taken place between Turkey and the EU has shown the former’s critical contribution to the security and welfare of the latter. In fact, the gains are reciprocal, since Turkey also suffers from the implosion in the Middle East. Such a win-win situation cannot continue unless Turkey remains democratic. It is delusional to think this could continue with an authoritarian Islamic regime in Turkey.
The current cooperation is possible only because there are still a significant number of people and institutions that have endorsed universal values in Turkey. The slide into authoritarianism will erode these institutions and lead to a brain drain from Turkey. The day might come when Europe has to face a country where mobs yelling “Allahu Akbar” (God is the greatest) to stop tanks will not even listen to their leader.
The EU and its member countries should give crystal clear messages that they stand with Turkey in its struggle against the Fethullah Gülen movement, which appears to be behind this coup. They should provide concrete support to substantiate this message.
At the same time, they should be extremely vigilant about voicing criticism wherever they see undemocratic moves. They should not wait, for example, for the Turkish Parliament to start discussing the reinstitution of the death penalty. But rather than voicing threats like “Turkey cannot be a member of the EU if it brings back the death penalty,” it should use all the channels of dialogue - both state and non-state - to explain why this would not be in Turkey’s best interests.
[Source: HÜRRYET| Originally posted: July 21, 2016]
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