KURDISTAN

One can but paint a somber picture of the human rights situation in Turkey. The resort to torture and bad treatment has been common practice for a long time. The "disappearances" and the extrajudicial execution are new forms of violations in the 90's. Turkish citizens do not really relish in a true freedom of speech. Recent Turkish history has been punctuated by three military coup d'etat : furthermore, since the 80's, an armed conflict opposes the security forces and the opposition groups embedded in the South-East mountains as well as in the cities in the West of the country. These armed groups, the most significant of which is the Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan (PKK, Workers party of Kurdistan) are responsible of executions. The alternating governments have denied the existence of the violations of fundamental human rights or have justified them by presenting them as the inevitable consequence of actions aimed at defending national security. Despite many promises of reform, Turkish citizens can still be detained at random. They benefit no protection protection from being tortured, still a current method of interrogation. Since 1980 it is estimated that more than 400 people have died after having been tortured while in custody. The disappearances and political assassinations have made thousands of victims since 1991. The international community keeps turns a blind eye as to the situation of human rights in Turkey. It repeats after the Turkish authorities that the end justifies the means with regards to defending national security. The measures taken by the authorities in this domain simply for the change are welcomed as progress by the international community, letting commercial interests and political allegiance come before the safety of the Turkish citizen.