Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Government issued a statement expressing serious concerns when the co-chairs of the HDP, Figen Yüksekdağ and Selahattin Demirtaş, were arrested in November 2016. Ireland made clear its concerns regarding the proportionality of the Turkish authorities’ response to the attempted coup in July 2016, and regarding the scale of the arrests of human rights defenders, journalists and political activists in the intervening period.

The arrest and detention of elected Members of Parliament such as Mr. Demirtaş is especially worrying. I have repeatedly said that all those facing trial in Turkey, including Mr. Demirtaş and the chair of Amnesty International Turkey, Taner Kılıç, must be afforded full due process, including the presumption of innocence and the right to a fair trial. The pretrial detention of Mr. Demirtaş has been lengthy and I am concerned that the level of transparency implicit in the right to due process has not been observed in his case. We urge the Turkish authorities to ensure that Mr. Demirtaş is given a prompt and fair trial based on the principle of presumption of innocence and in line with the European Convention of Human Rights and the case law of the European Court of Human Rights.

Official election results have yet to be published but the first indications are that Mr. Demirtaş received approximately 10% of the vote, notwithstanding his inability to run a normal election campaign because of his detention. Prior to polling day, the EU expressed concerns as to whether these elections would take place in a free and fair climate and urged the Turkish authorities to ensure that this would be the case. Ireland supported this statement and as recently as last week I publicly reiterated the call on Turkey to ensure that the elections would be fully in line with democratic principles.

The preliminary conclusions of international observers from the OSCE and the Council of Europe are that voters had a genuine choice despite the lack of conditions for contestants to compete on an equal basis. They said the incumbent President and his party enjoyed a notable advantage, reflected in excessive coverage by Government‐affiliated public and private media.

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