Madam, - Allow me to express my deep dismay on reading Maggie Ronayne's account of her recent visit to the south-eastern provinces of Turkey ("Turkey's human rights abuses need addressing", Opinion, September 28th).
The incredible allegations she presents as facts (women being strip-searched in public, veils being ripped, etc.) reach the point of defamation. Her portrayal of systematic and widespread torture in Turkey is very different to the assessments by many human rights experts and that of EU Officials who have visited the very same areas. Unlike Ms Ronayne, these officials had access to penitentiaries and wide contact with the local people and with the local NGOs working in the field of human rights. As recently as mid-September, the EU Commissioner for Enlargement, Mr Verheugen, sent a fact-finding mission to these regions to investigate a claim that there was still "systematic torture" in Turkey made by one human rights organisation to him during his visit to the region.
The mission found this claim was unsubstantiated.
In the past three years ground-breaking reforms have been achieved in Turkey. To name but a few, the civil code has been overhauled, the military's role in government curtailed, freedoms of assembly, speech and association all bolstered and legislation passed to further align the administration with the norms and practices in EU countries.
Furthermore, the new penal code approved by the Turkish Parliament on September 26th includes tougher sentences for torture, sexual harassment, "honour killings" and domestic violence.
All these reforms have been widely debated and supported by the people and all institutions in Turkey, including the overwhelming majority of the opposition.
The Turkish government has followed a policy of "zero tolerance" towards torture and ill-treatment and put in place intensive in-service training for security officers, judicial personnel and public prosecutors.
We admit that currently there might be shortcomings in implementation and occasional individual cases of ill-treatment of prisoners. Understandably for the legislation to take root and change the mentality will take some time. However, conscious that democracy is a process to perfection, the Turkish government is determined to further improve legislation and standards and consolidate their implementation. - Yours, etc.,
GÜLSEREN ÇELIK, Counsellor, Turkish Embassy, Dublin 4.