Gül defends raid on human rights office

Date: 22/05/03

TURKEY has dismissed criticism by Günter Verheugen, the enlargement commissioner, following a police raid on the country's largest human rights group.

Verheugen launched a strongly worded attack over the 6 May incident at the Ankara offices of the Human Rights Association (HRA), contending that anti-repression activists must be able to work without harassment.

Abdullah Gül, Turkey's foreign minister, discussed the raid with Verheugen during his visit to Brussels last week but maintained there was "nothing wrong" with the police search, which followed a court order.

"No one was taken to the police station for questioning," said Gül. "Files and diskettes were not taken. There were just some copies taken."

But his version of events contradicted a statement from the association itself.

This claimed that archives relating to the destruction of nearly 4,000 Kurdish villages in the 1990s and the deaths of more than 800 detainees were removed by police (although later returned).

Police were accompanied by an official from the controversial state security court.

Gül also refuted suggestions that the raid could have been an attempt to derail reforms being undertaken as part of moves to prepare the country for EU membership.

The fact that it occurred just hours before a meeting he had scheduled with the HRA "looks like a coincidence", he said. Gül also rejected suggestions that generals belonging to the Turkish national security council have an effective stranglehold over the government.

"They [the council] don't order, they don't give direction. They just advise. It is up to the government to accept it [the council's recommendations] as an order or advice."