No Friends but the Mountains... and the Copenhagen Criteria? - A study on Türkiye’s fulfilment of the Copenhagen political criteria in relation to the human rights of Kurdish people
(2024) JURM02 20241Department of Law
Faculty of Law
- Abstract
- During the Swedish NATO negotiations, the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan once again raised the question of whether Türkiye could be welcomed into the EU. This thesis examines Türkiye’s shortcomings concerning their EU accession, focusing on the human rights of Kurdish people by answering the research questions: what is the state of human rights of the Kurd-ish people in Türkiye, and what changes would need to be enacted for Türkiye to see a possibility of becoming an EU Member State? The thesis examines the development of Turkish law and the treatment of Kurdish people, Türkiye’s history with the EU, and Türkiye’s compliance with international and European human rights law with regard to Kurdish people.
In 2018, negotiations... (More) - During the Swedish NATO negotiations, the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan once again raised the question of whether Türkiye could be welcomed into the EU. This thesis examines Türkiye’s shortcomings concerning their EU accession, focusing on the human rights of Kurdish people by answering the research questions: what is the state of human rights of the Kurd-ish people in Türkiye, and what changes would need to be enacted for Türkiye to see a possibility of becoming an EU Member State? The thesis examines the development of Turkish law and the treatment of Kurdish people, Türkiye’s history with the EU, and Türkiye’s compliance with international and European human rights law with regard to Kurdish people.
In 2018, negotiations regarding Türkiye’s accession to the EU were discontinued, mainly due to the Turkish State’s disregard for the first point of the Copenhagen criteria, concerning democracy, rule of law, human rights and the protection of minorities. This is a result of backsliding in all mentioned areas. Kurdish people in Türkiye have been particularly affected by the current political climate. This is largely an effect of the attempted coup in 2016, after which Kurdish people have been systematically arrested for claims of terror-ism, and suspended from professions, especially in the public sector.
Türkiye has a history of subpar adherence to human rights, especially regard-ing the rights of its Kurdish minority, evident in both legislation and in practice. These problems remain today. The Turkish State is the country with the highest number of convictions in the European Court of Human Rights, where systematic human rights violations against Kurds are apparent in several areas, such as the right to a free trial, the right to liberty and security and the freedom of expression. For a long time, the use of Kurdish language has been de facto prohibited in Türkiye, and it is still restricted. Pro-Kurdish political parties have continuously been shut down, and elected politicians representing pro-Kurdish policies are regularly removed from duty, or even imprisoned. Moreover, Türkiye does not recognise Kurds as a minority, indicating that they are not given minority protection by the State. (Less) - Popular Abstract (Swedish)
- Under Nato-förhandlingarna väckte Turkiets president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ännu en gång frågan om Turkiet kan bli välkomnat in i EU. Examensarbetet undersöker Turkiets tillkortakommanden gällande sitt anslutande till EU, med fokus på kurders mänskliga rättigheter genom att besvara frågeställningarna: hur ser kurders mänskliga rättigheter ut i Turkiet idag och vilka åtgärder behöver Turkiet göra för att se möjligheten till ett EU-medlemskap? För att be-svara detta analyseras den turkiska rättsutvecklingen i relation till kurder, utvecklingen av Turkiets relation till EU och Turkiets efterföljande av internationella instrument för mänskliga rättigheter vad gäller kurder.
Under 2018 avslutades förhandlingarna gällande Turkiets anslutande... (More) - Under Nato-förhandlingarna väckte Turkiets president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ännu en gång frågan om Turkiet kan bli välkomnat in i EU. Examensarbetet undersöker Turkiets tillkortakommanden gällande sitt anslutande till EU, med fokus på kurders mänskliga rättigheter genom att besvara frågeställningarna: hur ser kurders mänskliga rättigheter ut i Turkiet idag och vilka åtgärder behöver Turkiet göra för att se möjligheten till ett EU-medlemskap? För att be-svara detta analyseras den turkiska rättsutvecklingen i relation till kurder, utvecklingen av Turkiets relation till EU och Turkiets efterföljande av internationella instrument för mänskliga rättigheter vad gäller kurder.
Under 2018 avslutades förhandlingarna gällande Turkiets anslutande till EU, huvudsakligen på grund av statens åsidosättande av innehållet i den första punkten av Köpenhamnskriterierna gällande demokrati, rättsstatsprincipen, mänskliga rättigheter och skydd för minoriteter. Det är ett resultat av tillbaka-gång (backsliding) inom alla nämnda områden. Kurdiska personer i Turkiet har blivit speciellt påverkade av det nuvarande politiska klimatet. Det har till stor del orsak i den misslyckade kuppen 2016, efter vilken kurdiska personer blivit systematiskt arresterade över anklagelser om terrorism, samt blivit avstängda från yrken, speciellt inom den offentliga sektorn.
Turkiet har en historia av bristfälligt upprätthållande av mänskliga rättigheter, speciellt gällande rättigheterna av dess kurdiska minoritet, vilket framgår både i lagstiftning och praktiken. Dessa problem fortsätter idag; den turkiska staten är det land med störst mängd fällande domar i Europadomstolen, där systematiska brott mot kurders mänskliga rättigheter är märkbara inom flera områden, såsom rätten till rättvis rättegång, rätten till frihet och säkerhet samt yttrandefrihet. Under en lång tid har användandet av det kurdiska språket varit de facto förbjudet i Turkiet och det är fortfarande begränsat. Pro-kurdiska politiska partier har kontinuerligt blivit nedstängda, och valda politiker som representerar pro-kurdisk politik är regelbundet avsatta från sina ämbeten, eller till och med fängslade. Dessutom erkänner inte Turkiet kurder som en minoritet, vil-ket indikerar att de inte ges minoritetsskydd av staten. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9153577
- author
- Yesil Aydin, Siliva LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- JURM02 20241
- year
- 2024
- type
- H3 - Professional qualifications (4 Years - )
- subject
- keywords
- Human Rights, Kurdistan, Kurdish people, Kurds, International law, Human rights law, Folkrätt, International Public Law, EU-rätt, EU law
- language
- English
- id
- 9153577
- date added to LUP
- 2024-06-19 09:27:21
- date last changed
- 2024-06-19 09:27:21
@misc{9153577,
abstract = {{During the Swedish NATO negotiations, the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan once again raised the question of whether Türkiye could be welcomed into the EU. This thesis examines Türkiye’s shortcomings concerning their EU accession, focusing on the human rights of Kurdish people by answering the research questions: what is the state of human rights of the Kurd-ish people in Türkiye, and what changes would need to be enacted for Türkiye to see a possibility of becoming an EU Member State? The thesis examines the development of Turkish law and the treatment of Kurdish people, Türkiye’s history with the EU, and Türkiye’s compliance with international and European human rights law with regard to Kurdish people.
In 2018, negotiations regarding Türkiye’s accession to the EU were discontinued, mainly due to the Turkish State’s disregard for the first point of the Copenhagen criteria, concerning democracy, rule of law, human rights and the protection of minorities. This is a result of backsliding in all mentioned areas. Kurdish people in Türkiye have been particularly affected by the current political climate. This is largely an effect of the attempted coup in 2016, after which Kurdish people have been systematically arrested for claims of terror-ism, and suspended from professions, especially in the public sector.
Türkiye has a history of subpar adherence to human rights, especially regard-ing the rights of its Kurdish minority, evident in both legislation and in practice. These problems remain today. The Turkish State is the country with the highest number of convictions in the European Court of Human Rights, where systematic human rights violations against Kurds are apparent in several areas, such as the right to a free trial, the right to liberty and security and the freedom of expression. For a long time, the use of Kurdish language has been de facto prohibited in Türkiye, and it is still restricted. Pro-Kurdish political parties have continuously been shut down, and elected politicians representing pro-Kurdish policies are regularly removed from duty, or even imprisoned. Moreover, Türkiye does not recognise Kurds as a minority, indicating that they are not given minority protection by the State.}},
author = {{Yesil Aydin, Siliva}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{No Friends but the Mountains... and the Copenhagen Criteria? - A study on Türkiye’s fulfilment of the Copenhagen political criteria in relation to the human rights of Kurdish people}},
year = {{2024}},
}