Erdogan promises stronger freedoms, human rights in Turkey

President  Recep Tayyip Erdogan has promised Turkey will strengthen freedom of expression and organisation in the country and the right to a fair trial as part of what his government has called a “human rights action plan”.

The proposal, promised in recent months as part of a series of legal and economic reforms, would also improve the judiciary system, Erdogan said at the presidential palace in Ankara on Tuesday.

No one can be deprived of freedom because of their thoughts, said Erdogan, who has faced criticism both at home and abroad for his handling of rights issues.

As part of a nine-point plan, Erdogan outlined measures to improve the judicial system in areas including nationalisation of land and the trial of minors, to steps to ensure a speedy trial and ease business conditions.

He said the government was reviewing prosecution of crimes related to the press and the internet.

“Improving freedom of expression, organisation and religion … is the goal we have so far worked the hardest on,” he told ministers and other government officials.

“We will not water every flower we see,” Erdogan added. “While watering a flower with its head bent means justice, watering a thorn means cruelty.”

Punishing thousands

Critics say Erdogan’s government applies political pressure on the judiciary, which has been bent on punishing thousands of the government’s perceived opponents since a failed coup in 2016.

Ankara says courts are independent and it has acted in the face of security threats to the country.

Turkey has ignored rulings by the European Court of Human Rights for the immediate release of high-profile philanthropist Osman Kavala, jailed more than three years without conviction, and Selahattin Demirtas, former leader of Turkey’s third-largest party, the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).

The court, whose rulings are legally binding, says such detentions violate human rights and serve only to limit pluralism and political debate.

Erdogan said on Tuesday a committee would be set up to observe human rights conditions in prisons and a human rights report on Turkey would be published annually.