Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan secured back his position as the leader of 15 years long governing AK Party in Turkey after the questionable results of the constitutional referendum on April. Three months before, he had a special guest from England, Prime Minister Theresa May. The two leaders signed a deal of 100 million pounds, concerning supply of jet fighters to Turkey by England. This deal gives hope for May in becoming the major defence partner of Ankara. However, after the joint press statement, May underlined the point of Turkey’s controversial balance sheet on human rights and democracy.
“Turkey must uphold its international human rights obligations” she said.
Makes sense?
May’s hopes of being Turkey’s defense partner do have a pragmatic meaning as Turkey, a country whose army had always been busy with internal and external assignments for decades, is always spending money for purchasing or modernising weapons. Being such a buyer, it would not make sense to expect Erdogan to listen to any advice on human rights. So Theresa May’s statement on Turkey to uphold its human rights obligations seems procedural. Consequently, Erdogan and May look like distant cousins getting along well.
Corbyn on Kurds
But what about Jeremy Corbyn, a former peace activist and chairman of Stop the War Coalition?
Considering his election win, will his approach on Ankara be different? It seems yes. Turkish Foreign Service should be watching him carefully as he said “I would be very strong with the Turkish government on its treatment of Kurdish people and minorities and the way in which it’s denied them their decency and human rights.” Sounds like more than a friendly notice, corbyn continued his speech at Chatham House saying, “If arms are being used to oppress people internally in violation of international law then they simply should not be supplied to them.”
What’s happening in Turkey?
Turkey is being governed under a State Of Emergency after the failed coup attempt on July 15th last year.
Since then, Kurdish political movement People’s Democracy Party (HDP) that holds the third biggest majority in the Turkish parliament, have been under police raid. Co-chairman of the party, Mr. Selahattin Demirtas was arrested and put in jail for more than six months with the state of emergency being protracted for another three months. For the sake of 100 million pounds fighter jet deal, Theresa May is pretending to be blind. But will Jeremy Corbyn?
