ANKARA - Turkish Daily News
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul on Monday described photographs depicting the torture of Iraqi detainees by U.S-led coalition forces as "pictures of shame" and said that Turkey has presented its concerns at every level.
The pictures, which stunned the international community, were aired last week. Images broadcast on CBS' "60 Minutes II" in the United States showed Iraqis stripped naked, hooded and being tormented by their U.S. captors.
An internal U.S. Army report found that Iraqi detainees were subjected to "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses," according to The New Yorker magazine. On Saturday, Britain's Daily Mirror newspaper published a front-page picture of a British soldier apparently urinating on a hooded prisoner.
Speaking to reporters in Ankara, Gul said: "It's very shameful. Those pictures will certainly be in people's minds for a long time. The good thing is the opening of investigations in both countries and attempts to punish the guilty parties. Not concealing the investigation and sorting it out in their own country is a blessing of democracy and freedom. This is a good development for sure, but those pictures are certainly shameful and will be remembered. We are presenting our concerns at every level."
AKP and CHP outraged
Both the ruling and the main opposition parties reacted to the pictures in the same way.
Ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) parliamentary group deputy chairman Salih Kapusuz said the mistreatment of the Iraqi detainees by the U.S-led coalition forces couldn't be accepted.
Speaking to journalists at Parliament, Kapusuz said: "This and similar mistakes as well as torture and mistreatment cannot be accepted in the name of humanity irrespective of who, for whom, or where it was happened. Even if a person is guilty, treating humans in a humane manner is a humane responsibility."
Indicating that there have been serious reactions to this event, Kapusuz condemned such inhumane actions in such a world that talks about "animal rights" and noted that Turkey is going to carry out its responsibilities if needed, adding that a necessary investigation regarding the incident by the concerned states is expected.
Main opposition party Republican People's Party (CHP) parliamentary group deputy chairman Ali Topuz also condemned the incident and said one needs to constantly remind the perpetrators of these actions in Iraq about their acts in order to prevent a their repetition, adding that the United States and Britain were biased against other states. Topuz said the two had once again demonstrated what they really felt about other countries by attempting to take inappropriate and disrespectful actions against those states.
Topuz stressed that this revealed the importance of the right decision Turkey made last year to not send troops to Iraq and not become a part of the invading forces in Iraq who had engaged in this "dirty work." While the traditional approach of the United States has long been known, EU member Britain's similar approaches are hard to understand, said Topuz, adding:
"Britain cannot explain this to its own society. It is a shame, and one needs to persistently remind these states [of their crimes] since they can do such ugly things again. It became clear with this incident how helpful we were to the ruling AK Party party at the time, which did not become part of such ugly acts. It is a shame to have an invading army in Iraq, but the shame was reinforced with these tortures," said Topuz.
IHD stages sit-in
Meanwhile, a group from the Human Rights Association (IHD) Istanbul branch staged a sit-in in Istanbul condemning the mistreatment of the Iraqi detainees.
IHD Deputy Chairman Eren Keskin spoke on behalf of the group and condemned the acts. After his address, the group staged a protest by carrying placards reading, "UN remains silent; the invasion and torture continue," "Inform the public about the situation of Iraqi soldiers."

--
Copyright 2004, Turkish Daily News. This article is redistributed with permission for personal use of TurkishPress.com readers. No part of this article may be reproduced, further distributed or archived without the prior permission of the publisher.