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It seems Turkey managed to displace 378,000 more ethinically diverse people, this time Kurds.
Key points:
"EU officials should press Turkey to take effective steps to facilitate the return of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) to southeastern Turkey, where Turkish security forces expelled hundreds of thousands from their villages during an internal armed conflict that raged during the 1980s and 1990s. "
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"When we checked Turkey’s figures on helping the displaced return home, the numbers proved unreliable,” said Rachel Denber, acting executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia Division. “Also, the bare figures don’t convey how, thanks to government inaction, villagers are returning to places that are practically uninhabitable.”
In southeastern Turkey, the government has failed to provide infrastructure such as electricity, telephone lines and schools to returning communities, and has not provided proper assistance with house reconstruction.
“What’s worse, the government’s paramilitary village guards are attacking and killing returnees in some parts of southeastern Turkey,” added Denber. "
"It is now 18 years since Human Rights Watch warned of the impending program of village destruction in a 1987 report during the conflict in southeastern Turkey. The Turkish army duly carried out its campaign with considerable violence, torturing, “disappearing” and extrajudicially executing villagers in the process. Human Rights Watch has since repeatedly criticized the Turkish government’s empty gestures in its return programs, issuing further reports in 1995 and 2002.
“The Turkish state tried to cover up what it did, and now it’s subjecting the displaced to years of delay,” said Denber. “When EU officials arrive in Ankara, they need to put the problem of the displaced at the top of their agenda.” "
"Preventing torture is another area where the Turkish government seems to have run out of energy."
Key points:
"EU officials should press Turkey to take effective steps to facilitate the return of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) to southeastern Turkey, where Turkish security forces expelled hundreds of thousands from their villages during an internal armed conflict that raged during the 1980s and 1990s. "
+
"When we checked Turkey’s figures on helping the displaced return home, the numbers proved unreliable,” said Rachel Denber, acting executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia Division. “Also, the bare figures don’t convey how, thanks to government inaction, villagers are returning to places that are practically uninhabitable.”
In southeastern Turkey, the government has failed to provide infrastructure such as electricity, telephone lines and schools to returning communities, and has not provided proper assistance with house reconstruction.
“What’s worse, the government’s paramilitary village guards are attacking and killing returnees in some parts of southeastern Turkey,” added Denber. "
"It is now 18 years since Human Rights Watch warned of the impending program of village destruction in a 1987 report during the conflict in southeastern Turkey. The Turkish army duly carried out its campaign with considerable violence, torturing, “disappearing” and extrajudicially executing villagers in the process. Human Rights Watch has since repeatedly criticized the Turkish government’s empty gestures in its return programs, issuing further reports in 1995 and 2002.
“The Turkish state tried to cover up what it did, and now it’s subjecting the displaced to years of delay,” said Denber. “When EU officials arrive in Ankara, they need to put the problem of the displaced at the top of their agenda.” "
"Preventing torture is another area where the Turkish government seems to have run out of energy."
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