Babacan’s ’back row’ rights doctrine

The concept, in so many words, is "a report prepared by people in the back rows." The minister resorts to this concept in the name of trivializing the human rights report prepared by the United States, and to downplay its content. Before we delve into an analysis of this phenomenon indicating a major intellectual hurdle in the way Ali Babacan views human rights, let’s, if you will, recap his own statements.

Brought up in the summit

The minister indeed confirms that the report came up during U.S Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, only to add that it was "over and done within a couple of minutes" since the issue was not on the intended agenda to begin with.

The minister also mentions that the reason behind the extensive circulation of the report (among the public at large) is closely related with a certain media group, saying, "The issue was blown out of proportion because it seemed to serve a certain group."

What makes matters more interesting is the statements, "The U.S Department of State may be at fault, too. This is not a report Clinton herself has penned É

People in the back rows have drafted this report, no reason to attach much merit to it. One needs to wonder why it is blown out of proportion this year while it does not even get to be an issue every other year. We sure would like it to be impartial and balanced. I mean, if we were to pen a report, there are blemishes in everyone’s record after all É"

Criticism not just limited to this report

It is quite obvious that the minister has a tendency to largely blame the Doğan Group for the public spotlight the report has been enjoying. He readily claims "the content has the potential to benefit the Doğan Group."

Let us move on with our analysis now. First and foremost, there is an issue Babacan would rather turn a blind eye to. Criticism regarding the pressure the government applies on the media is not limited to the pages of the U.S Department of State report.

A cursory look at the Progress Report published on Turkey by the European Union Commission back in November reveals disapproving remarks regarding "pressures on the media."

In the report made public by Commissioner Ollie Rehn, head of European Commission responsible for Enlargement, and Babacan’s close colleague, it is said that "there is a need to guarantee an atmosphere conducive to full respect of the freedom of the press in Turkey."

In short, as far as both the United States and the EU, the AKP government, in which Babacan is the minister of Foreign Affairs, is a government which oppresses the freedom of press. Period.

The "back of the class" theory fails in yet another regard. There is a foreword penned by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the introduction page of the U.S. report. Clinton states human rights shall constitute a major component of the U.S. foreign policy in the upcoming term, and that they shall strive to make that a reality not only within U.S. soil, but throughout the entire globe.

Prepared by no less than 81 state department officers

Country reports on human rights drafted by the U.S. embassies are sent to Washington at the end of every year, to be reviewed and finalized by a team dedicated solely to this task within the Department of State. According to the official Department of State Web site, no less than 81 State Department officers took part in preparing and actually writing this report. In other words, it does not seem like a sort of a back of the class job.

What really needs to be stressed is the fact that the human rights reports are becoming decidedly more significant now that Obama has taken over the office. It is true that such reports used to attract the due attention during the Bush administration, owing to the flawed human rights record of the United States at the time. This situation however, has taken a turn for the better with the Democrats taking office.

Babacan’s words to the effect of such reports not being made an issue in the past by the media do not reflect the truth, at least as far as Milliyet is concerned. Milliyet has always heeded such reports and made every effort to shed as much light as possible on these.

For instance, we published the report under the heading "An X-Ray of Turkey in the US report" on the first page, with close to a half a full page inside (page 19) on March 13, 2006. As for 2007, on March 11, we had the headline "Many Turkish leaders religious order members, according to the US," with a two-thirds page article inside (page 20).

An international responsibility that transcends domestic liabilities

The fundamental problem within the statements made by the minister actually lies elsewhere: Human rights is far from being an issue left exclusively in the hands of national sovereignty matters of states anymore at this point we have reached in the 21st century; it is an international responsibility that transcends domestic liabilities.

It is for this reason that the sorts of approaches trivializing such reports as "the work of people in the back of the classroom" have a hard time falling in line with such contemporary insight. A point of view such as this and confrontational approaches to the tune of "but, we could raise your human rights violations, too É" rings as more of a third-world rhetoric.

In order to demonstrate this, let us recall, word by word, the fourth paragraph of the opening speech by Karen Stewart, the acting Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, during the press conference where the report was made public on February 25:

Clear emphasis in the opening speech

"President Obama has made it clear that we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. We do not consider views about our performance voiced by others in the international community, whether by other governments or nongovernmental actors, to be interference in our internal affairs, nor should other governments regard expressions about their performance as such.

We and all other sovereign nations have international obligations to respect the universal human rights and freedoms of our citizens. And it is the responsibility of others to speak out when they believe those obligations are not being fulfilled."

The US considers it a duty, because

It is within this context, Mr. Babacan, that the U.S. Department of State considers it a duty to bring up the issue of the torturing and murdering of Engin Çeber by the correctional officers while in custody in this report (Page 5). (Excuse me; did you say the report was faulty?)

This is the reason why it criticizes the excessive force used by the police while surrounding the DISK headquarters on May 1, and gassing the workers inside (Page 30).

And, before we forget, in case you have not a chance to read the report, the U.S. Department of State also feels compelled to mention that "your government fails to effectively implement the laws on corruption, as well, for it considers it a duty (Page 31).

Hundreds more of such examples may be presented from this report, 43 pages in total printed in book form.

(http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/eur/119109.htm)

In short, this report says there are serious problems in human rights issues, and that torture incidents are on the rise.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Babacan may just as well go on qualifying this report as "a report filed by those in the back rows," however, there are times when the nice students all sitting up front in class may think the truth is nothing more than what is written on the blackboard and what the teacher tells them.

Sedat Ergin is editor-in-chief of the daily Milliyet in which this piece appeared yesterday