Brainwashing through a single channel is going on in Turkey

Former CHP Member of Parliament and European Court of Human Rights Judge, Rıza Türmen, evaluated Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Commission Chair Volkan Bozkır’s comment that, “Reference has begun to be made to European Court of Human Rights rulings once more.”

Commenting on the matter to cumhuriyet.com.tr, Türmen said, “It is impossible to enter the club of democratic countries having eliminated democracy.”

Türmen continued as follows:

“Turkey is not a member of the European Union because it has dispensed with freedom of speech, the freedom of assembly and protest marches and personal security and freedom. To be able to become a member this must first of all be rectified.

The biggest problem confronting democratization in Turkey is the failure for the truth to be told. What is said is not the truth. The truth is that there is no independent judiciary. Purging the judiciary of FETO has brought into being a judiciary dependent on the ruling entity. Brainwashing through a single channel is going on in Turkey today. If we discount a small number of newspapers and channels, all the media has come under the ruling entity’s orders. Journalists working in these places who do not toady up to the ruling entity are dismissed. With there today being an ever-greater distancing from democracy, it is natural that progress in the EU process remains elusive. It is impossible to enter the club of democratic countries having eliminated democracy.

“Which European Court of Human Rights ruling is this in?”

Bozkır’s sentence, “Reference has begun to be made to European Court of Human Rights rulings once more” is incorrect. European Court of Human Rights rulings in the matter of meetings and protest marches are clear. For example, the Saturday Mothers have been staging a peaceful vigil for years and they suffered a major attack in recent days. Which European Court of Human Rights ruling is this in? There is a whole host of European Court of Human Rights rulings in which Turkey has been convicted over forced disappearance. The slightest investigation in relation to these cases has not been conducted and impunity has reigned. This is just one example.

Turkey has also been convicted in many applications for its breach of security of the person in the European Convention on Human Rights through detention.

The ruling entity can only remain in power by telling the people a different narrative. The situation in which Turkey finds itself is not an auspicious situation.

“The state of emergency is effectively continuing 

They speak of the state of emergency having ended. The state of emergency is effectively continuing. The state of emergency is continuing with all its arbitrariness. The state of emergency has attained a state of permanence. Turkey is currently governed under presidential decrees. There is no accountability because there is no government in existence. There is a system that blocks accountability.