Europe signals Turkey: Retry Abdullah Ocalan
International Herald Tribune
MONDAY, MAY 16, 2005
The Turks often complain that because they are Middle Eastern Muslims,
Europe is making them jump through many more hoops than any other candidate for
membership in the European Union. There is some merit to that complaint, but
there is no denying the fairness of the latest hoop that went up - that Turkey
at last provide a fair trial to the Kurdish nationalist leader Abdullah Ocalan.
The question now is whether Turkish leaders will comply with last week's
confirmation by the European Court of Human Rights of its ruling two years ago
that Ocalan's 1999 trial was not fairly conducted. Ocalan, who led a separatist
rebellion in which at least 30,000 people died, is serving a life sentence for
treason.
It is not unfair to watch closely how Turkey responds. Turkey had offered
many excuses for not taking care of this obvious problem. It argued that the
ruling by the Strasbourg court was largely procedural and that its rulings are
not binding. It noted that the tyrannical system of state security courts in
which Ocalan was originally tried for "treason through separatism" have since
been scrapped, and his original death sentence was commuted when Turkey
abolished the death penalty in 2002 in line with EU requirements.
But Turkey's handling of the long-standing yearnings for autonomy of its
Kurdish minority is one of the central issues on which its progress on human
rights will be judged.
A new and fair trial for a man so reviled by most Turks would be a
notable achievement. Under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the country has
been trying, even if fitfully, to improve its levels of democracy and human
rights. We hope that Erdogan will show his government can properly handle a
case that arouses such intense emotions.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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