ANKARA - State Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin said on Friday that they could not look down on progress which Turkey recorded in human rights and on the way of being legal state yet noted that it was not sufficient.
Delivering a speech at the opening of a symposium on ''European Convention on Human Rights and Administrative Judiciary'' in the Council of State Conference Hall, Sahin said that there were still 7,113 applications against Turkey in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and stated that Turkey was ranked the third among countries which were complained most.
Constitutional Court Chairman Mustafa Bumin and Council of State Chairman Nuri Alan also attended the symposium.
Stating that Turkey was among the countries which signed first every kind of agreements on human rights, he said that when Turkey became a party to the European Convention on Human Rights it aimed to take under guaranty freedom of thought, religion and conscience and put into practice basic principles like ban on torture and discrimination.
Sahin said that Turkey not only signed European Convention on Human Rights, but also accepted judiciary power of the ECHR, and stated that what was important was to comply with documents which were signed and put them into practice.
Sahin said that there were still 7,113 applications against Turkey in the ECHR and stated that nearly 2,000 of those applications were made by Greek Cypriots.
Stating that Turkey paid more than 21 million euros as compensation and friendly solution, he said that unfortunately Turkey could not fully complete its institutional and social democratization although it recorded great progress on that issue.
Sahin said that the government put into effect seven adjustment packages and stated that they aimed to put into practice the principle which said that ''state cannot resort to a provision in international law to justify a violation.''
(EÖ-AY) 24.10.2003