[RUDAW.NET] The Turkish parliament has voted to give more powers and authority to the military by granting them immunity from prosecution for actions they take while conducting operations against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Granting them license to rape, pillage, torture, and murder, are they? How's that EU membership thingy going, by the way?
| Discussions are to resume shortly, now that the Brexit vote is over. |
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
will be needed before any soldier can face prosecution.
Critics have said this undermines civilian oversight over the military.
The law is being applied retroactively, meaning it covers the actions of the armed forces against the PKK since the war was reignited last July after the failure of the two year ceasefire.
This comes after human rights
When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much...
organizations and the United Nations
...an idea whose time has gone...
have expressed serious concern over the actions of the Turkish Armed Forces in their ongoing fight against the PKK, especially the curfews and sieges they leveled against urban areas where the PKK were believed to have had a presence.
Scores of civilians have been killed in festivities between the military and the PKK since last July. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him...
estimates that the Turkish state has managed to kill 7,500 PKK members since the resumption of hostilities, with a loss of 500 troops and security forces.
The vote to give the military immunity comes after the parliament voted to strip pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) parliamentarians of their immunity last May so they can be subject to criminal investigation for their alleged links to the PKK.