ANKARA - Council of Europe (COE) Commissioner Alvaro Gil-Robles for Human Rights said on Thursday that there were still problems in implementation of reforms made in the field of human rights in Turkey.
After his meeting with Parliamentary Human Rights Investigation Commission Chairman Mehmet Elkatmis, Robles told reporters that there was significant progress in human rights in Turkey.
Robles stated that he was preparing a report about human rights issue in Turkey and that there were still some problems in implementation of human rights reforms.
Noting that implementation of reforms required great efforts, Robles said that efforts had to be exerted to totally end torture and maltreatment and to fully implement freedom of press and expression.
Structural reforms in line with the spirit of the European Convention on Human Rights had to be continued, Robles pointed out.
Robles said that there was significant progress in human rights in Turkey.
Defending that many civil servants and administration in Turkey should change their mentalities, Robles said that those mentalities seemed to remain behind the reforms.
Robles asked everybody to respect to the efforts carried out in the fields of human rights and freedom of press and pointed out that there were similar problems also in other issues.
Stating that they would make recommendations to Turkey regarding all those issues, Robles said that he ''was a loyal but a critical friend of Turkey.''
Replying to a question what the concrete human rights problems in Turkey were, Robles said that taking detained people under guarantee and giving them the right to meet their lawyers under every condition were still a problem in Turkey.
Robles noted that giving the inmates effective medical treatment and not punishing sufficiently who tortured were still a problem in Turkey.
Asked the mentality of which civil servants had not changed, Robles, who gave an example, said that an article of the Turkish Penal Code regarding the freedom of expression and organization was amended and punishment was abolished and the prosecutors should not try to ask for punishment under other articles.
Replying to a question about problems of the religious minorities, Robles said that he met with the Fener Greek Orthodox Patriarch and representatives of Armenian and Jewish societies in Istanbul.
Robles noted that ''the problems of religious minorities were obvious and known by everybody.''
''Further steps had to be taken regarding that issue,'' Robles said.
Stating that ''they should not be stuck to the past'', Robles said that ''all religions should be recognized equal rights.''
Robles said that ''legal personality'' of minority communities should be ''recognized'' and ''their education problems and problems in buying and selling property'' should be overcome.
When he was recalled that the law regarding the property purchase and sale of religious groups had been passed, Robles said that there were some problems in implementation and added that Elkatmis would meet with the representatives of the minority communities.
Elkatmis, in his part, said that Robles prepared a report on human rights in Turkey and he informed him about the changes made in that field.
Stating that deficiencies in implementation stemmed from infrastructural deficiencies and lack of sufficient education, Elkatmis said that he told Robles that those problems would be overcome in time.
Elkatmis said that the meeting of ombudsman of the EU countries would be held in Cappadocia in September or October upon the proposal of Robles.
Noting that they saw that de facto torture had been ended in Turkey in the end of their investigation in prisons and police stations, Elkatmis noted that they were dealing with some individual incidents and would continue to do so.
Stating that jurisdiction was independent in Turkey and intervention in jurisdiction was out of question, Elkatmis recalled Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's expression ''oligarchic bureaucracy'' and added, ''all deficiencies will be overcome rapidly.''
(BRC-AÖ) 12.06.2003