Human Rights News
HRW Documents on Turkey FREE    Join the HRW Mailing List 
Turkey: Elections Pose Test
International Election Observers Welcomed
(Istanbul, October 28, 2002) Turkey's November 3 parliamentary elections pose an important test of progress made since 1999 elections marred by serious irregularities, Human Rights Watch said today releasing a backgrounder on Turkey's recent election record. The group welcomed Turkey's recent acceptance of international election monitors as a positive step that could help curb past abuses.


Evidence of alleged manipulation of the 1999 vote: A ballot cast for the mainly Kurdish People's Democracy Party (HADEP) in the 1999 general election, burned and dumped with bundles of other ballots in a town in southeastern Turkey. International monitoring by OSCE and Council of Europe may help to prevent such abuses on November 3.
(c) 1999 Human Rights Watch

Related Material

Turkey: Close Scrutiny of Elections Warranted
Human Rights Watch Briefing Paper

EU To Assess Turkey's Membership Bid
HRW Press Release, October 8, 2002

Turkey's Bold Reforms Fail Imprisoned Legislators
HRW Press Release, August 7, 2002



"The presence of these international observers at the elections is a very welcome step. Reports of abuses during the 1999 elections and in the run-up to this year's vote make clear that independent monitoring is needed. We hope that Turkish officials will give the monitors full cooperation."

Elizabeth Andersen, Executive Director of the Europe and Central Asia Division of Human Rights Watch.


 
On the invitation of the Turkish government, the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) were expected to send their first-ever election observation missions to Turkey this week.

The high-stakes elections come just one month before an expected European Union decision on whether it is ready to set a date for membership negotiations with Turkey. Human rights and political freedoms have been a key stumbling block to Turkey's membership in the Union.

"The presence of these international observers at the elections is a very welcome step," said Elizabeth Andersen, Executive Director of the Europe and Central Asia division of Human Rights Watch. "Reports of abuses during the 1999 elections and in the run-up to this year's vote make clear that independent monitoring is needed. We hope that Turkish officials will give the monitors full cooperation."

A Human Rights Watch election backgrounder published today details problems with the 1999 elections and identifies a number of political rights violations and threats of violations that cloud the campaign phase of the current elections, including:

  • threats of closure of the mainly Kurdish Rights and Freedoms Party (Hak-Par) and People's Democracy Party (HADEP);

  • the right to stand for election denied to three former party leaders-of the Socialist Democrat Party, HADEP, and Welfare- as well as of the current leader of the Justice and Development Party, due to criminal convictions they received for the expression of non-violent opinion;

  • threats against and detention of representatives of the Turkish Communist Party and the Freedom and Solidarity Party for attempting to hang posters;

  • detention of candidates of Hak-Par and the mainly Kurdish Democratic People's Party (DEHAP)- formed by former HADEP members and members of the Labor Party and the Socialist Democrat Party; and

  • intimidation by security forces of villagers in the southeast, warning them not to vote for DEHAP.

The 1999 elections were marred by reports of abuses by police, security forces, and local government officials, who sought to influence the outcome of the vote through arbitrary arrests, threats, intimidation, confiscation of election material, and exclusion of party representatives from villages where they were engaging in campaign activities.

In 1999, there were also serious reports that the ballots themselves had been tampered with. Human Rights Watch was shown examples of partially burned ballot papers, cast for HADEP, that children had found while playing in the town garbage dump in the days after the election. HADEP officials alleged that the ballots had been taken from ballot boxes and destroyed. A picture of one of the burned ballots is available on Human Rights Watch's website.

"International monitoring of this year's elections is clearly warranted," said Andersen. "We hope that the presence of the Council of Europe and the OSCE will help ensure that they are free and fair."

A Human Rights Watch delegation is also in Turkey to document events over the election period. They will hold a press conference marking the release of a new Human Rights Watch report, Displaced and Disregarded: Turkey's Failing Village Return Program, which describes the plight of those displaced by the fifteen-year conflict in the southeast and the persistent obstacles to their return.