Turkey: Terrorism, Civil Rights and the European Union

A valuable source for students and researchers of international politics, international relations and security studies. A collection of materials that reflects the legal responses in combating terrorism is an essential volume in any academic and professional collection as it provides a case-specific reference point in the fields of EU politics, law, and international relations. It contains translations, contextual notes, and explanations from the editors of over 112 Turkish and EU documents ranging from martial law, PKK terror, Turkey-EU relations, human rights, and Turkish reforms. This resource book enables the reader to gauge Turkey’s prospects for success in establishing an effective government that at the same time protects the rights of the individual.

How do democratic societies maintain the balance between civil rights and security while continuing the fight on global terrorism? This work raises this issue and presents one country, Turkey, and its struggle to implement laws to combat terrorism and comply with the European Union’s civil rights standards.

A collection of materials that reflects the legal responses in combating terrorism is an essential volume in any academic and professional collection as it provides a case-specific reference point in the fields of EU politics, law, and international relations. It contains translations, contextual notes, and explanations from the editors of over 112 Turkish and EU documents ranging from martial law, PKK terror, Turkey-EU relations, human rights, and Turkish reforms. This resource book enables the reader to gauge Turkey’s prospects for success in establishing an effective government that at the same time protects the rights of the individual.

This book will prove a valuable source for students and researchers of international politics, international relations and security studies.

Excerpt from the Preface

(…) Limited and focused in its scope, this volume provides current background statistics and information about Turkey. Chapter 1 also outlines Turkey’s twentieth century history through a narrative of the main points of political transition, its evolution into a modern democracy, and the effects of terrorism on this process.

Chapter 2 focuses on the military coup of 1980, the first counterterrorism measures, such as the imposition of martial law, taken by this state, and traces the evolution of the Turkish Constitution until the mid-1980s.

Chapter 3 presents the emergence of the Kurdish terrorism insurgency — the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) — and Turkey’s response to its activities. It later presents the incompatibility of certain counterterrorism measures with the European Convention on Human Rights. To provide all the dimensions of this issue, Chapter 4 documents the mechanisms through which Human Rights and fundamental freedoms initially gained importance and eventually became the founding blocks of the European Union. Chapters 5 and 6 details the role of Human Rights in the EU by presenting documents intrinsic to the development of the EU’s Human Rights policy.

Chapter 7 covers the era from 1963 to 1994 — from the Ankara Agreement to the signing of the Customs Union Treaty. This part contains documentation of the problems that were posed by Turkey’s Human Rights record to complete a thirty-two-year process. Chapter 8 focuses on the years following the signing of the 1995 Customs Union Treaty and presents documentation regarding the continuous damaging effect of the Human Rights situation in Turkey and what Turkey did in an attempt to achieve membership of the EU. As Human Rights issues have functioned as a serious impediment to Turkey’s accession process, Chapter 9 provides additional Human Rights-related documents from the years 1996–98, including European resolutions and ECtHR court materials.

The 1999 Helsinki European Council Presidency Conclusions, various progress reports, and documents that reflect European encouragement of Turkish reforms are presented in Chapter 10. Chapter 11 covers events and documents from the year 2000 including ECtHR case reports, which motivated Turkey to initiate reforms in 2001, as offered in Chapter 12. Chapters 12 and 13 reflect the impact of the EU’s demands on Turkey to improve its Human Rights record an assortment of relevant materials: EU documents demanding improvements and making these improvements a precondition of accession negotiations; and Turkish documents changing various laws that were in place to improve Human Rights while fighting terrorism.

Chapter 14 outlines Turkey’s significant progress and effort in aligning itself with European Human Rights standards. It presents the December 2004 Brussels European Council Presidency Conclusions and other documents, which reflect Europe’s attitude towards Turkey’s membership and provide recommendations for improvements.

The final chapter includes documents to answer the question of where EU–Turkey relations are headed after the December 2004 Brussels European Council. It provides a range of documents to answer what legal measures can be expected to counter terrorism, and to improve Human Rights and fundamental freedoms; presents the most up-to-date developments in the areas of EU–Turkey relations; and incorporates a summary of the recent events in Turkey relating to Human Rights, the Kurdish issue, terrorist incidences, and counterterrorism measures.

To present the importance of Human Rights issues between the EU and Turkey, and to show the impact of the EU’s “compliance with political Copenhagen precondition criteria,” this volume contains 115 edited documents (most of which are from official sources) and 28 documents of commentary proposed by the editors. Where official documents were not available, or not translated into English, we either translated such documents or described them. Also, the text contains the editors’ comments at certain points where the editors felt that such comments would either be helpful to the reader or would serve to explain related developments. These comments are based on either scholarly and well-supported articles or original documents. (…)

Contents

About the editors
List of illustrations
Foreword
Preface

1. Turkey: Country Information
2. 1980 Military Coup, Martial Law and State of Emergency, and a New Constitution
3. Emergence of the PKK and Turkey’s Legal Responses to Terrorism
4. European System of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
5. European Community and Human Rights
6. The European Union and Human Rights
7. Turkey-EU Relations: 1963-1994 the Ankara Agreement, Emergence of Turkey’s Human Rights Record as a Problem
8. Customs Union Decision and the First Implications of the Human Rights Problems
9. After the Customs Union Decision: Problems Persist 1996-1998
10. 1999 Helsinki European Council and European Union Membership Perspective for Turkey
11. After Helsinki: Initial Developments: 2000
12. Turkish Reforms on Civil Rights Begin: 2001
13. Turkey’s Progress on Human Rights: Changes in Anti-Terrorism Related Laws: 2002-2003
14. Year of Evaluation for Turkey to Start EU Accession Negotiations: 2004
15. Quo Vadis? After 2004: European Union Membership Still a Rough Path

Notes
Bibliography
Glossary
Index
Index of documents

Rapidshare Link