USA human rights report 2013 - Massive discrimination against Kurds

[Bahoz]

We have all known that the discrimination against Kurds have always been high in Turkey. This year alone there has been more than hundreds of human rights abuses against Kurds from the turkish state - many of these human rights abuses were cases run at the European Court of Human Rights which has judged Turkey numerous times over the last couple of years. However, it is not only Kurds who are discriminated. The discrimination stretches as far as to other minority groups including Armenians, Romas, Alevis, Christians etc. Also the USA human rights report asserts that Turkey is still imprisoning journalists more than ever. So we can conclude that even Turkey's best ally, the Americans, are now open about the discrimination and human rights abuses against minority groups and especially Kurds.

Couple of quotes from the report:

The government harassed and prosecuted persons sympathetic to some religious, political, and Kurdish nationalist or cultural viewpoints. Authorities used excessive force to disperse protests, detained thousands of persons, including many journalists, academics, lawyers, and students, during demonstrations, and charged many under the antiterror law. Of particular note, authorities used excessive force in response to the summer’s Gezi Park protests, leading to mass casualties (including seven deaths) and an overall diminution of freedom of expression and press.

The HRA asserted that there were several thousand political prisoners from across the political spectrum, including journalists, political party officials, and academics. The government stated that those persons were charged with being members of, or assisting, terrorist organizations. Using the broad definition of terrorism and threats to national security, prosecutors often did not distinguish between persons who incited violence, those who supported the use of violence but did not use it themselves, and those who rejected violence but sympathized with some or all of the philosophical goals of the various political movements, particularly the Kurdish identity movement.

The penal code and antiterror law contain multiple articles that restrict freedom of the press. International and domestic human rights organizations expressed particular concern over what they regarded as an overly broad definition of terrorism under the antiterror law and its disproportionate use by authorities against members of the press, academics, students, and members of the political opposition and Kurdish activist community [.... ]Prosecutors had often used this provision of the criminal code to convict members of the press who published information relating to the Kurdish issue and/or the PKK.

Scores of persons identified as journalists remain in prison, most charged under the antiterror law for connections to an illegal organization or for participation in antigovernment plots. On December 18, the Committee to Protect Journalists reported that the government had 40 journalists imprisoned, including dozens of Kurdish journalists.

The TPA cited media sources in counting 453 books and 645 other publications banned and seized in past years by the government. With the passage of the Third Judicial Reform Package, all such bans issued prior to December 31, 2011, would be void unless renewed by a court order. The TPA reported that bans on leftist, communist, and Kurdish publications were renewed.

Writers and publishers were subject to prosecution on grounds of defamation, denigration, obscenity, separatism, terrorism, subversion, fundamentalism, and insulting religious values. Authorities investigated or continued court cases against myriad publications and publishers during the year, including numerous books related to the Kurdish issue.

Alevis, followers of a belief system that incorporates aspects of both Shia and Sunni Islam and draws on the traditions of other religious groups indigenous to the region, constitute between 10 and 25 percent of the population. They faced systemic discrimination from the state. They were underrepresented in the state bureaucracy, and held none of the country’s 81 provincial governorships appointed by the central government. Alevi houses of worship or “cem evi” did not have a legal status equal to mosques or receive state funding, and the state’s Presidency of Religious Affairs represented only Sunni interests, as did compulsory religious education in schools. Alevis regularly faced societal discrimination. For example, in early December vandals marked the homes of 13 Alevi families with red paint, in an echo of similar warnings in 1978, before a massacre of dozens of Alevis in Maras Province.

In 2010 the government began trying thousands of persons alleged to be members or supporters of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), the umbrella political organization of the PKK terrorist group. The Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) and human rights organizations claimed that, over a three-year period, authorities detained approximately 30,000 persons, of whom they arrested 8,000, and detained thousands of others (including elected mayors, political party officials, journalists, and human rights activists) pending trial. In January courts acquitted 106 defendants in Diyarbakir, including 98 elected mayors, of all charges after they had spent four years in pretrial detention. Arrests and indictments in other anti-KCK trials continued. The EU Commission’s progress report for the year noted that the number of elected officials on trial in the KCK case was “adversely affecting the exercise of regional and local democracy.”

rosecutors continued to bring dozens of cases against writers, journalists, and political figures under various laws that restrict media freedom. Human rights and press freedom activists asserted that authorities filed numerous civil and criminal complaints against journalists, authors, and publishers for ideological reasons. For example, in May, the Turkish Air Forces command filed a complaint against journalist Mehmet Baransu. In December he was charged with espionage for revealing confidential documents. These charges are the latest instance in an onslaught of harassment tactics leveled at Baransu since 2010, including death threats and wiretapping, widely acknowledged by observers to be a result of his investigative reporting.
Authorities at times also ordered raids on newspaper offices, temporarily closed newspapers, issued fines, or confiscated newspapers for violating speech codes. Government officials, including political leaders, made statements throughout the year that appeared intended to influence media content, including but not limited to news coverage.

Read it all here: http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/220551.pdf

There is a lot more. I am not going to fill this page out with all the discrimination and human rights abuses faced by minority groups. It is not all bad though. There has been better conditions for many minority groups including broader broadcasting in other languages than Turkish and the opening of more Cemevis ( Alevi houses) etc. However, it is obvious that there is a need for law changes or else the human rights abuses will continue.

 

[Neptune]

"love the way you lie" eminem.

@WebMaster Why we still have this terrorist sympatizan here

 

[Yzd Khalifa]

I thought the Kurdish Turks " nationals " make up a considerable portion of Turkey's population, most of whom are known for getting along with other ethnic groups.

If that is true then I don't see the Turks discriminating against the Kurds.

 

[EagleEyes]

"love the way you lie" eminem.

@WebMaster Why we still have this terrorist sympatizan here

Let him discuss, if he can adequately.

 

[senheiser]

nice that americans care, but where is their concern about their own citizens?

 

[Yzd Khalifa]

nice that americans care, but where is their concern about their own citizens?

Concerns of US nationals won't be as ugly as Russia's citizens on whatever level ..

 

[T-123456]

And now what?
Bohaz,you try all you want and call the US to help you.
This is the third time i'm stating this;In the ME the American dream turns into a nightmare!

 

[Bahoz]

"love the way you lie" eminem.

@WebMaster Why we still have this terrorist sympatizan here

Stay on topic. What can you say about the discrimination against minority groups? Are you saying that your closes ally is a lier? Send a letter to John Kerry and tell him he is lying haha

And now what?
Bohaz,you try all you want and call the US to help you.
This is the third time i'm stating this;In the ME the American dream turns into a nightmare!

US has been helping you day in and day out trying to crush the Kurds. Why are you trying to turn this into some sort of '' you are calling for US aid''. Listen, I would rather have that US aids you double as much as they are already doing than wanting their help. How much has Turkey achieved with all the US aid? Nada.

 

[haman10]

Look bahoz , I myself am a half-azeri half-kurd iranian . Zaani che ooshem ? Lol

In any sort , I noticed your delusion and obcession abt kurd ppl

You're wrong , no one is discriminating against them

Why dafuq US govt. Whom BTW everyone knows I hate , should target its kurd population ?

This only shows your idiocy IMO

As an example iranian kurds have no delusion / obcession and thus are living in peace under one flag .

Seriously cut the crap my friend

Stop supporting terrorist crap like pkk and Pjak

 

[Fukuoka]

JEW USA who call zionist Al Qaeda beheaders democrats?

 

[senheiser]

Concerns of US nationals won't be as ugly as Russia's citizens on whatever level ..

comes from womens abuser heaven

 

[Yzd Khalifa]

comes from womens abuser heaven

We have a very different idea about what defines the abuse of women, given the difference in both cultural background.

But why diverting from my question?

 

[senheiser]

We have a very different idea about what defines the abuse of women, given the difference in both cultural background.

But why diverting from my question?

why not? you also have different ideas when girls are ready to have sex with adults

 

[Bahoz]

Look bahoz , I myself am a half-azeri half-kurd iranian . Zaani che ooshem ? Lol

In any sort , I noticed your delusion and obcession abt kurd ppl

You're wrong , no one is discriminating against them

Why dafuq US govt. Whom BTW everyone knows I hate , should target its kurd population ?

This only shows your idiocy IMO

As an example iranian kurds have no delusion / obcession and thus are living in peace under one flag .

Seriously cut the crap my friend

Stop supporting terrorist crap like pkk and Pjak

I dont even know where to start. Why do you call yourself Kurd if you do not know how to speak Kurdish? You are a slave for the persians thats what you are. No Kurds are slaves to persians. If you want to be a slave, go ahead. I could not care less. But do not pull your slave ideas on to others and especially not me. And please, dont call yourself Kurdish when you cant even put together a sentence in Kurdish.

It is obsessions of humanity and human rights... Do people know these two words in persia?

 

[Yzd Khalifa]

why not? you also have different ideas when girls are ready to have sex with adults

Let just not turn into a defensive position please. You still haven't answered my question yet.

Firstly, you laid out an argument regarding the US's human rights record, and in response to the claim you made, I asked you to give us an insight about how things have been going with Russia regarding its human right records.

Secondly, having sex with an underage child is considered to be a crime - based on international law - No one can argue about it. And disappointingly, pedophilia takes place everywhere in this world.