Tahir Elçi
Human Rights Watch on the murder of Tahir Elçi:
The November 28, 2015 assassination of Tahir Elçi, one of Turkey’s most prominent human rights lawyers and defenders, is a huge loss for the human rights community and all those who seek rule of law, democracy and justice, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch offered sincere condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Elçi, head of the Diyarbakir Bar Association.
“This is a very dark day for Turkey – the murder of Tahir Elçi is a devastating blow not only to human rights activists but to all who want to see justice and rule of law prevail in Turkey,” said Emma Sinclair-Webb, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Tahir Elçi played a key role in representing victims of human rights violations and was critical of abusive tactics whether by the state or by armed groups.”
Elçi was shot in the head with a single bullet on a street in the southeastern city of Diyarbakır, where he worked and lived, shortly after holding a press conference in the old city. The full circumstances of the killing are at the time of writing unclear. A police officer was also killed nearby.
Elçi’s murder comes at a dark time for human rights in Turkey. The breakdown of the government’s peace process with the Kurds over the summer has seen a spiraling cycle of violence in the southeast.
Elçi had worked since the early 1990s as a human rights lawyer, first in the southeast in Cizre, his home town, and later in Diyarbakır, the largest city in region. He worked extensively to represent families of victims of egregious human rights violations by the security forces, including enforced disappearances and unlawful killings by suspected government agents.
Over many years, he played a key role in representing victims of these crimes before the European Court of Human Rights, and worked closely with international human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. He himself was a victim of torture and arbitrary detention, amongst other abuses, facts recognized by the European Court of Human Rights before which he and his colleagues also successfully brought their own case.
Turkey is on a very bad path.
“Turkey is on a very bad path”. Yes, indeed and apparently Erdogan thinks that the path will lead Turkey into the EU, an alarming prospect given Turkey’s re-islamisation and appalling human rights record.
I suspect what Erdogan wants is a situation in which he can negotiate eased restrictions on trade and migration, without the pesky requirement to meet all the EU’s rules on standards, human and civil rights etc etc.
I can’t help wondering how shooting down a Russian fighter plane fits into this picture.
Somehow it ups the ante, bringing Nato into the poker game besides EU.
Whether Erdogan placed this chip or someone else, he will play it.
Men of a certain arrogance think that the world is a game and that they master it.
IIRC – please correct me if wrong.
Erdogan has stated that (paraphrase) “Democracy is a very useful vehicle for getting you from one place to another”
Work the rest out for yourself, given that he’s an islamist.
“Bad Path” indeed.
Syria is being used for lots of score settling and proxy actions – by all sides. Erdogan hates Assad. He probably fears and maybe even hates ISIS, but at least has some aligned goals (creation of a religious state). Turkey has long hated the Kurds and the PKK. The PKK fight Assad and (historically) Turkey. There is a significant turkish minority in northern Syria that fights against Assad. Russia is a strong ally of Assad and is using the pretext of fighting ISIS to support Assad by bombing all sorts of rebel groups including the Kurds and various groups composed of Turkmen.
I’m sure it’s more complex than that, just on the Turkish side. Add in hundreds of fighting groups and several full nation states, all with overlapping interests and the only common thread in it all is misery, pain and death for people who just want to live their lives.
Good lord, Greg Tingey – haven’t heard from you in years. *waves*