Guy Verhoofstadt, EP, Belgian ex-prime minister "Could you please explain what sort of restraint you expected from the peaceful demonstrators on Taksim Square? They were peaceful demonstrators confronted by brutal police forces and facing tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets. I was surprised – to be honest I was disappointed – that the Union has again chosen to be ambivalent in the face of what is a clear violation of human rights by a state that is currently a candidate for accession to the European Union. What has happened in Turkey is a clear violation of human rights, and we all know that it is not an isolated case. In Turkey in recent years we have seen a growing deterioration of the fundamentals of democracy. Look at the media for example. Hannes Swoboda has already given this as an example. I would call Turkey today, Mr Swoboda, the biggest prison for journalists in the world. In the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index, it was ranked 154th , just three places above the last dictatorship in Europe, Belarus. That is what is happening today in Turkey. In my opinion – and I did not hear this from the European Union in its message – what is happening in Turkey is constant abuse by an overbearing state. I call it a ‘tyranny of a majority’, in the words of John Stuart Mill, a system in which decisions taken by a majority are always more important than the rights of minorities and the rights of individual people. This trend goes beyond Turkey. Look at Mr Putin in Russia and even Mr Orbán in Hungary. Here we are talking about Turkey and Mr Erdoğan. Let me be clear, I am not questioning – and I do not ask you to question – the democratic mandate of the elected Government of Turkey. What I am questioning – and what I am asking you to stand up against – is the deterioration of a democracy that is becoming more and more what I call a democratura. My group is a strong supporter of a European choice for Turkey, but, let me clear, not a Turkey that turns its back on European principles and values."
Posted on: Sun, 16 Jun 2013 23:29:23 +0000
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