H.E. Mr. Levent Murat Burhan:

This is about Syria, what we want there and why we intervened there. The differentiation between Kurds and the PKK is very important for us.

We know that we have to improve in the context of human rights but in October a new judicial reform package was passed and the effects were seen on the ground in that some detainees were released by the decision of the courts. We are aware of our obligations under international law and we pay full respect to the rule of law, and the principle of necessity and proportionality also which we have to take into account.

It was mentioned that lots of people were dismissed following the coup two and a half years ago.

The legal remedies are very much in place. Thanks to these, for example, 43,000 employees were reinstated and 360 private entities were allowed to function again. Journalists in prison were mentioned. In fact, they are not detained because of their journalistic work but due to their acts in support of and links to terrorist organisations. As I said, this is decided by the independent courts, which take their decisions on the merits of each case. As I said also, legal remedies exist and individuals can appeal to a higher court. Indeed, we have recognised the individual right of appeal to the constitutional court and, as I said in my speech, even to the European Court of Human Rights. Those rights are available.

The mayors who were dismissed were mentioned. This was because of concern about their use of municipality resources to support terrorist activities instead of providing basic services to the local population. They put into practice some methods, like a co-chair method, whereby they convey their mayoral authority to co-mayors who not elected by the voters in the elections. This has no basis in Turkish legislation. These co-mayors illegally exercise all the administrative powers of the elected mayor. Most of the cases are because of this, and the mayors in question are dismissed as an interim measure until investigative proceedings are finalised. Everything is done according to our constitution and our laws, and legal remedies exist.

Some MPs were mentioned. I remind the committee that 154 MPs had their immunity lifted. That was decided by the Turkish Parliament, and these MPs included people from the ruling party and from the main opposition party. They were asked by the public prosecutors to give their depositions, which most of them did. Even the leader of the main opposition party gave his deposition, but some MPs did not. They said that they did not recognise the authority of these courts or the public prosecutors. That is why they were detained. That is a fact.

Deputy Crowe mentioned some prisoners not being given food, medical support and so on. I respectfully disagree with him. We cannot accept such claims. We are party to the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the UN Committee Against Torture. They have monitoring mechanisms and they come to Turkey to monitor the situation, including all the prisons and so on, and then they publish their report. That is not to say we are perfect. Of course, we can improve. There is always room for improvement and because of that, as I said, we recently initiated this new judicial reform package. However, we would like our allies and partners to understand that we are fighting on multiple fronts. We are fighting against Daesh, we are fighting against the PKK and we are fighting against this group, which has staged this-----