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Hamburg - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday that "deep differences" remained between her and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after they met on the sidelines of the G20 summit.

She stressed however that Erdogan had engaged in the talks and that the gathering "honoured" Turkey's role in managing the migrant crisis driven by Syria's civil war and other conflicts.

Turkey's sweeping arrests of alleged state enemies after last year's coup attempt and a dispute about a Nato base "are developments which I of course raised that show deep differences," Merkel said.

"And we didn't sweep those under the table".

Berlin-Ankara relations have been fraught, deteriorating sharply over Turkey's mass crackdown after the failed putsch against Erdogan last year and a host of other civil rights controversies.

Another dispute is about Deniz Yucel, a German-Turkish journalist with the newspaper Die Welt who was imprisoned by Turkey on terror charges earlier this year.

And last month Germany decided to withdraw its troops who support the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria from Nato partner Turkey's Incirlik base and move them to Jordan after German lawmakers were prohibited from visiting the base.

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Merkel says 'deep differences' remain with Erdogan - News24

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan today accused recently detained rights activists of trying to implement the aims of those who failed to oust him in a coup last year.

Idil Eser, director of Amnesty International Turkey, was held on Wednesday along with activists and trainers on Buyukada, an island south of Istanbul.

Erdogan, when asked about the activists at a news conference at the closing session of G20 in Hamburg, referred back to the attempt to topple him.

"They gathered for a meeting which was a continuation of July 15," he said, referring to the date when his rule was threatened, noting that any action regarding the activists rests with the judiciary.

Turkish police detained 10 people: eight human rights defenders and two foreign trainers -- a German and a Swedish national. They were subsequently taken to various police stations.

Amnesty said those arrested were attending a "digital security and information management workshop".

The detentions come less than a month after Amnesty's Turkey chair, Taner Kilic, was remanded in custody on what the group described as "baseless charges" of links to Fethullah Gulen, a US-based cleric and alleged mastermind of the coup.

Turkey remains under a state of emergency, which critics say has been used to round up not just the alleged plotters but anyone who dares to oppose the president.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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Erdogan compares detained activists to coup plotters - Business Standard

By Merve Tahiroglu and Eric S. Edelman By Merve Tahiroglu and Eric S. Edelman July 7 at 11:51 AM

Eric S. Edelman is a former U.S. ambassador to Turkey and a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Merve Tahiroglu is a research associate at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Rumors are swirling in Washington about a potential prisoner swap with Turkey. The Turks want the United States to release a Turkish-Iranian millionaire awaiting trial in Manhattan, in return for which they might free a North Carolina pastor being held in a prison in Izmir. Both men are accused of threatening national security. Yet a trade would be a grave mistake, one that would help Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to export his contempt for the rule of law to the United States.

Reza Zarrab, the Turkish-Iranian businessman, was arrested upon his arrival in Miami in March 2016 for conspiring to evade international sanctions against Iran. Zarrab, who owns businesses in Turkey, Dubai and China, is believed to have laundered money and gold from Iran at the height of the U.S.-led sanctions regime in 2012-2013. In December 2013, Zarrab was arrested in Turkey as part of a historic corruption scandal that implicated several ministers and businessmen with close ties to Erdogans government. Under legally dubious circumstances, Zarrab was eventually released. But the federal indictment filed by then-federal prosecutor Preet Bharara, in many ways echoing the findings of the 2013 Turkish prosecutors investigation, put Ankaras role in Tehrans underground economy back in the spotlight.

Pastor Andrew Brunsons case is of a totally different nature. He is accused of membership in an armed terrorist organization the so-called Fethullah Gulen Terrorist Organization that Ankara blames for Turkeys failed coup last July. (Fethullah Gulen, a former Erdogan ally turned mortal foe, is a Muslim cleric who has lived for many years in the United States.) Before his arrest, Brunson lived with his family in Turkey for 23 years without incident. He is now among the more than 50,000 people in Turkey arrested on similar charges in the past 11 months. Brunsons lawyer has decried the utter lack of evidence in the pastors case.

President Trump appears to be keen to achieve Brunsons release. He reportedly brought up the issue three times in his first meeting with Erdogan in May, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with Brunsons wife while visiting Turkey in March. Turkish officials, however, prefer to highlight Zarrabs case with their American counterparts.

And the stakes have only gotten higher. In March, U.S. authorities arrested another Turk connected to the case, the banker Mehmet Hakan Atilla. Zarrab and Atilla could reveal at trial new information implicating Erdogan or his family in the sanctions-avoiding scheme.

Trump may find a diplomatic deal with Ankara for Brunson appealing. After all, one of his few diplomatic accomplishments since taking office was securing the release, during the visit of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, of charity worker Aya Hjiazi, an American citizen who had been jailed in Cairo for three years. But trading a peaceful faith leader imprisoned on spurious charges in exchange for a sleazy middleman accused of corrupting a foreign government on behalf of Iran would only help Erdogan suborn the rule of law in the United States as he has done in Turkey.

Since he first came to power in 2002, Erdogan has systematically undermined his countrys fragile legal institutions by staging show trials featuring his enemies. Zarrab owes his freedom in Turkey to a blatant political intervention in the judicial system. Within weeks of the 2013 anti-corruption operation, the government replaced all law enforcement officials involved in the investigation. Within months, all the cases were dismissed and all the suspects freed.

Since the coup attempt, Erdogan has effectively ruled by decree. Government critics risk arbitrary detention on dubious terrorism charges. More than a dozen opposition parliamentarians are in jail. As Ankara prepares to transition from a parliamentary to a presidential system, the lines between Turkeys executive, legislative and judicial branches are becoming even more blurred.

The Turkish president also appears intent on extending his authoritarianism to American shores. While Erdogan watched, his bodyguards viciously beat protesters outside the Turkish ambassadors residence in Washington in May. When the State Department expressed concern, the Turkish Foreign Ministry had the effrontery to summon U.S. Ambassador John Bass to protest the actions of the D.C. Metropolitan Police. And this was not the first assault of its kind in Washington. During Erdogans 2016 visit, his bodyguards roughed up protesters in front of the Brookings Institution when Erdogan arrived to speak. These attacks occurred while Erdogans lobbyists in Washington have been working full-time to achieve a diplomatic deal to spring Zarrab as the price for improving U.S.-Turkish bilateral relations.

Trump should intensify the diplomatic effort to secure the release of Brunson but not by negotiating a prisoner swap for Tehrans bag man in Turkey. Erdogans efforts to undermine the U.S. legal system shouldnt be rewarded. For Turks who are trying to protect whats left of their countrys democracy, its the least that Washington can do.

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Why Trump should not swap prisoners with Erdogan - Washington Post

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends a working session on the first day of the G20 summit. World leaders meeting at the G20 must stand up for Turkeys beleaguered civil society now. Photograph: Patrik Stollarz/AFP/Getty Images

In July 1998, Amnesty International wrote to the Turkish government demanding the release of the then-mayor of Istanbul, who had been jailed after reading a poem at a demonstration. Amnesty International had declared him a prisoner of conscience and launched a global campaign on his behalf. His name was Recep Tayyip Erdoan.

Nineteen years later, and now president, it is the same Recep Tayyip Erdoan who presides over the detention of some of Turkeys most prominent human rights defenders and activists, including Amnesty International Turkeys two leaders.

On Wednesday morning, eight human rights defenders, among them Amnesty Internationals Turkey director Idil Eser, were detained while attending a workshop, along with the two international trainers. For over 28 hours, no one, including their loved ones, knew where they were being held. Their detention has now been authorised for seven days, and could be extended for a further seven days without them being brought before a court.

Their lawyers have told us that the group are facing a criminal investigation on the absurd suspicion of being members of an armed terrorist organisation. With decades of solid human rights work between them, the accusations would be laughable were the situation in Turkey not so extremely grave for anyone who dares to criticise the government.

Idils detention comes less than a month after the chair of Amnesty International Turkey, Taner Kl, was remanded in custody on baseless charges. Accused of supporting the Fethullah Glen movement an organisation he has openly criticised Taner is now in prison, waiting for an indictment and a trial. This could take months. If found guilty of membership of the movement he faces up to 15 years in prison.

These detentions highlight the precarious situation facing human rights activists in Turkey a country that has seen more than 50,000 people jailed in the crackdown that followed the attempted coup almost exactly one year ago.

Indeed, if anyone was still in doubt about the endgame of Turkeys post-coup crackdown, they should not be now. There is to be no civil society, no criticism and no accountability in Erdoans Turkey.

The eight human rights defenders are the latest victims of President Erdoans ruthless and arbitrary crackdown on any and all criticism of the authorities in the country. Since the failed coup attempt, Erdoan has embarked on a full-scale assault on civil society that many observers in Turkey view as unprecedented.

There are currently ongoing criminal investigations against approximately 150,000 people. In the last year, 160 media outlets have been shut down and an estimated 2,500 journalists and other media workers have lost their jobs. With more than 130 journalists and others who work in the media behind bars since the attempted coup, Turkey now jails more journalists than any other country. One-third of all imprisoned journalists in the world are held in Turkish prisons.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of perceived government critics have been jailed and more than 100,000 public sector employees summarily dismissed.

In the wake of the arrest of Idil and the other nine, governments across the world promptly condemned the actions of the Turkish government with a spokeswoman for the US State Department saying that the US was deeply concerned and stressing that more voices, not fewer, are necessary in challenging times.

While these statements are welcome, the international response to Erdoans actions over the past year has been conspicuous by its absence.

The past two days have provided a prime opportunity to redress this failure. The worlds most powerful leaders have gathered in Hamburg for the G20 summit, with the Turkish president in attendance.

In the build-up to the summit, German chancellor Angela Merkel expressed her desire to make the strengthening of civil society a key item on the agenda and extolled the importance of a vibrant civil society in ensuring free societies.

These are fine words. But Idil, Taner and the scores of jailed human rights activists need more than words. If world leaders meeting at the G20 fail to demand their immediate release and stand up for Turkeys beleaguered civil society now, there may be nothing left of it by the time the next summit comes around.

Excerpt from:
G20 leaders must demand that President Erdoan release the Istanbul 10 - The Guardian

Tens of thousands have been killed over 40 years of bloodletting between Turkish forces and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), and tragically there seems to be no end in sight. In May 2016, President Erdogan stated that military operations against the PKK will continue until the very last rebel is killed. What is alarming about Erdogans statement is that he still believes he can solve the conflict through brutal force. Erdogan does not understand that he cannot wish the Kurdish problem awaya problem that will continue to haunt him and the country for countless more decades unless a solution is found that respects their cultural and fundamental human rights.

There are 15 million Kurds, representing nearly 18 percent of the Turkish population. Like their Turkish counterparts they are largely Sunnis, but their cultural distinction trumps their religious beliefs. They are fighting to preserve their ethnic identity, fearing that otherwise their culture and language would fade away and die.

The history of the conflict is long, complicated, and painful. In the 1970s Abdullah calan raised awareness about the Kurds plight, which was followed by crackdowns by successive Turkish governments, leading to the formation of the PKK and further escalation of violence over the years.

Under intensifying domestic and EU pressure, Erdogan agreed to restart negotiations in late 2012, which collapsed by July 2015. In the wake of the failed military coup in July 2016, Erdogan moved to crush the PKK and Kurdish aspirations, even though to date there has been absolutely no proven connection between the Kurds and the coup plot. His rampage against the Kurds continued despite the US and EUs call to stop his heavy-handed approach that grossly violated their basic human rights. Only recently, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim announced in the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir that around 14,000 Kurdish teachers will be suspended, falsely accusing them of having ties with the PKK.

What made matters worse was Erdogans authorization to launch a fierce attack on PKK forces who were embedded in a civilian Kurdish-majority community in the southeast. A UN report documented human rights violations including killings, disappearances, torture, destruction of houses, and prevention of access to medical care, while leaving the area in ruins.

Between July 2015 and December 2016, more than 2,000 were killed, including 1,200 civilians and 800 members of Turkish security forces, and more than 500,000 were displaced. Hundreds of members of the Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) were put behind bars on charges of collaborating with the PKK. Erdogan continues to refuse to negotiate, insisting that the PKK is a terrorist organization and must be brought to heel by military force.

Certainly, what is wrong or right matters, but what we must face here is a reality that neither side can ignore and expect to find a solution that can exclusively meet the requirements of either side. After more than four decades of bloody conflict that has claimed the lives of so many, and the destruction from which hundreds of thousands of Kurds and Turks have suffered, when will Erdogan come to his senses that the solution lies only in peace negotiations?

What is worse is that the international community, especially the EU and the US, has been publicly silent about Erdogans transgressions and ruthlessness. They often cite Turkeys role in fighting ISIS, its NATO membership, and its geostrategic importance as an energy hub as the reason behind their unwillingness to pressure him to change direction.

That said, and regardless of the challenges that Turkey facesincluding the fight against ISIS, a deteriorating economy, domestic upheaval aggravated by the failed coup, and the pressure of hosting three million refugeesnothing justifies Erdogans outrageous purges.

His utter disregard for human rights by jailing scores of Kurdish journalists, arresting a dozen Kurdish parliamentarians, employing collective punishment tactics against Kurdish towns and villages, and attacking Syrian Kurds whom he accuses of providing aid to the PKK, only further heightens tensions throughout the country, invites terrorism, and leads to increasing social and political polarization.

As a believer who preaches the gospel of Islamic values, he vilifies and violates these values and conveniently justifies the indiscriminate killing of innocent Kurdish men, women, and children, and still shamelessly claims self-piety.

Erdogans demagoguery is second nature to him. As President Kennedy said in the 1960, Voices preaching doctrines wholly unrelated to reality [delude themselves that] strength is but a matter of slogans. Erdogan claims that Turkey is a full-fledged democracy, but he is dismantling the last vestiges of the countrys democratic governance that he himself promoted during his first and second terms in power.

He claims that the Kurds have equal political and human rights like any other Turkish citizen, and points out the fact that there are 110 Kurdish parliamentarians. True, they are equal under the Turkish constitution, but in practice are systematically discriminated against in government appointments, business contracts, job opportunities, and education.

Erdogan simply does not grasp the fact that even if the Kurds were treated equally in every walk of life, what they want is in line with and even complimentary to the framework of Turkish democracy. They are not seeking a state of their own, but simply to live freely as loyal Turkish citizens and enjoy their customs, folk music and dance, and way of life consistent with their long and rich cultural heritage.

The irony is that while Erdogan wants the Kurds to be loyal citizens, he never understood that their allegiance to the country depends on the way they are treated, the rights they are granted, and the civility they are accorded. To demand from the Kurds unconditional loyalty while robbing them of their basic rights only further alienates them and forces them to seek, fight, and die for autonomous rule if not independence, which he is bent on preventing.

I do not support, and I condemn any individual or group who uses brutal force for political or social gains regardless of its source, motivation, ideology, or belief. Erdogan and the PKK are equally guilty, and must pause and think where all this killing and destruction will lead to, when at the end of the day they will still have to coexist and face one another.

When violent extremism is on the rise, when human rights are fair game, when terrorism is surging, when ethnic violent conflicts are escalating, and when thousands of men, women, and children are slaughtered, leaders of conscience must not add fuel to the raging regional fires that have been consuming us unmercifully and relentlessly.

The PKK must not play into the hands of dictators like Erdogan by killing innocent civilians; as long as they are viewed as a terrorist group, they will not receive any support from influential civic organizations and the Turkish population in general.

To shed the stigma of being a terrorist organization, the PKK must declare a unilateral ceasefire and express its readiness to enter peace negotiations unconditionally, which would increase public pressure on Erdogan to resume peace talks.

Absent American leadership, the EU must assume upon itself the responsibility to use its enormous political and economic leverage to stop Erdogan from pursuing ruthless methods and policies not only against the Kurds, but his own fellow Turkish citizens. Erdogans nationalist zealotry is dividing the country and could potentially lead to widespread violence among the Turks, while further intensifying regional instability.

Mr. Erdogan, wake up. You will not succeed in killing every PKK fighternot only because of the nature of guerilla warfare, but primarily because of the Kurds determination to preserve their rich cultural heritage, language, and fundamental human rights. They will remain resolute and will outlast you, regardless of how much pain and suffering they endure under your tyrannical governance.

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