Turkey may be going 'beyond what is permissible' - UN

The UN human rights body says Turkey’s detention or suspension of more than 110,000 officials since a failed coup in July, including the arrest of pro-Kurdish lawmakers on Friday, may go, “beyond what is permissible”.

“We are concerned that, while they have declared a state of emergency and they have declared derogation of certain principles of the ICCPR, of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, that the steps that the authorities are taking go beyond what is permissible, in these cases,” said U.N. human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani .

The U.N. expressed concern last week about Turkey’s detentions and suspensions of elected lawmakers but the situation has worsened and the crackdown on the media is also very worrying, she said.

Meanwhile, Lawmakers from Turkey’s opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party, HDP which has Kurdish roots, were on Friday detained because they refused to give testimony in criminal proceedings.

A spokesman for the pro-Kurdish Party, the Turkish parliament’s second-biggest opposition grouping, says the detention of its two leaders and at least nine other lawmakers risked triggering civil war.

President Tayyip Erdogan and the ruling AK Party accuse the HDP of links to the PKK, which is deemed a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union.

The HDP won more than 5 million votes in the last general election a year ago. It denies direct links to the PKK.