The Guardian: for many, Turkey’s become a land of political repression

PanARMENIAN.Net - There is a growing disjuncture between those who promote modern-day Turkey as a democracy and those who experience Turkey as a land of arbitrary detentions, political repression and military destruction, The Guardian-published article said.

“In the past two years, the Turkish state has imprisoned thousands of its citizens under the sweeping rubric of counter-terrorism operations. Today, even relatively privileged academic colleagues in Turkey face the prospect of sharing the fate of Professor Busra Ersanli of Marmara University, whose detention in October 2011 as an alleged terrorist was proudly defended by the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development party (AKP),” Ayca Cubukcu, the author of the article Turkey: the 'Progressive' Land of Repression noted.

“Professor Ersanli's imprisonment has received considerable attention in Turkey and beyond, prompting petitions, protests, and academic initiatives by her colleagues and others concerned with the deteriorating prospects of democratic politics in Turkey. Organizations such as Human Rights Watch have issued statements condemning Ersanli's arrest as “part of a crackdown on people engaged in legal political activity with the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy party”,” the articles stressed.