Human rights in Turkey

Turkey is a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights and the Turkish Constitution guarantees basic human rights to all Turkish citizens. Nonetheless, Human rights in Turkey have long attracted international attention. While Turkey has made sufficient progress to allow the start of negotiations for the accession of Turkey to the European Union, concerns remain. However, according to the last EU report, 2005, Turkey has managed to be one of the top 10 countries in the world that are in line with the European Union Human Rights Council.

Gender equality

Turkey gave full political rights to women in 1934.

According to the Turkish Constitution Article 10, Turkish men and women enjoy equal rights. Turkey was one of the first countries to elect a female prime minister, Tansu Çiller. It is also the first country which had a female chief justice Tülay Tuğcu.

In remote parts of the country, such as Southeastern Anatolia, older attitudes prevail especially amongst the Kurdish population, and women still have to face violence, forced marriages, and so-called honour killings. Authorities engaged in stamping out such practices are often accused of racism and trying to suppress Kurdish culture. To combat this, the government and various other foundations are engaged in education campaigns in Southeastern Anatolia.

Press freedom

Turkey has hundreds of newspapers, TV channels and radio stations and they are free for every program and news, excepting material considered harmful to the unity of Turkey and general Turkish ethics. TRT (the government broadcaster) broadcasts short programmes in a number of minority languages, including Bosnian and Kurdish since 2003.

Regulations governing the media have been liberalised significantly since the 1980s and are regarded as generally free. Reforms have been underway since 2000, to assist Turkey's prospects for accession to the European Union.

However, press freedom groups have raised concerns over the use of criminal defamation laws to punish those who criticise authorities. According to the writers' advocacy group International PEN, roughly 60 writers, publishers and journalists have been brought before the courts in Turkey in the past year, many charged under Article 301. The Article states that "A person who explicitly insults being a Turk, the Republic or Turkish Grand National Assembly, shall be imposed to a penalty of imprisonment for a term of six months to three years."

Ethnic groups

Turkish society contains elements from every nationality of the Ottoman Empire. Many Turks are descended from Yugoslavs, Greeks, Armenians, Laz, Kurds, Albanians, Hungarians, Poles, Circassians, Georgians, Azeris, and Russians who adapted a Turkish identity. Turkey strongly endorses the concept of constitutional citizenship, which is not based on ethnicity. Turkish refers to all citizens of Turkey. Since all the citizens of Turkey share the same rights and benefits of citizenship all in common, there is no such nomenclature as minority in Turkey except for some of the Christian communities dictated by the Treaty of Lausanne in 1921.

Until recently, there were restrictions on speaking languages other than the official language Turkish, and publications in minority languages were not allowed. Since recent reforms took place, all minorities have the right to speak their own language, publish their own newspaper, broadcast their own TV channels and operate private schools that teach Kurdish or any other language spoken in Turkey. Neither ethnic group is allowed to be educated in their mother tongue due to the principle of unity of language in education.

Kurdish people

During the 1980s and 1990s, Turkish armed forces displaced its citizens in the southeastern region from rural areas to protect them from terrorist organization the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, (PKK) which is in the terrorist list of the US, UK, European Union and many other states. PKK's campaign of armed violence has resulted in some 30,000 casualties according to the "United States Department of State". {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |accessyear= and |coauthors= (help) Estimates suggest that 3 million people remain internally displaced and unable to return to their villages.

The European Court of Human Rights has condemned Turkey in numerous cases of human rights violations against Kurdish people, although it has never established that these violations were discriminatory in nature.

Religious freedom

Secularism in Turkey originates from Atatürk's 'Six Arrows' of Republicanism, Populism, Secularism, Reformism, Nationalism, and Statism. Although its population is almost exclusively Muslim, Turkey is a secular country and has no official religion.

By the constitution, every Turkish citizen has the right to choose their own religion and worship in whatever way they want, with some exceptions. In Turkey it is not permitted for a person to wear religious symbols (a head scarf or a cross etc.) in governmental and public instutitions or when attending a public state university as a result of secularism (like in France).

No religion, including Islam, may run a faith-based school. Religious education may only be given by appointed teachers who studied at Turkey's secular universities.

There is an informal domination of Sunni Islam within Turkish society, despite the protections offered by formal secularism. For example, the Alevis pray in meeting houses but the government funds only the building of mosques. Attempts to expand the Government religious fund to Alevites are made. So far, there have been no replies.

See also

• Accession of Turkey to the European Union
• Human rights in Europe
• International Freedom of Expression Exchange
• Gay rights in Turkey
• Village guards

External links

• 2005 Human Rights report on Turkey - US Department of State
• Human Rights overview of Turkey during 2005 - Human Rights Watch
• Censorship in Turkey - IFEX
• Kurdish Human Rights Project
• Women for Women's Human Rights"
• Forum 18 religious freedom analyses