EU official calls for ‘swift’ probe into Turkey’s police response to protests

A senior European Union official has criticised the Turkish police’s harsh crackdown on protesters, telling an audience that included the prime minister that a “swift and transparent” investigation was needed.

The comments by Stefan Fule, the EU enlargement commissioner, came yesterday at an Istanbul conference aimed at furthering the country’s decades-long ambition to join the 27-nation bloc.

That effort has advanced slowly, hampered by a dispute over EU-member Cyprus, Turkey’s previous human rights problems and some political resistance among EU members.

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Mr Fule said people in democratic societies have the right to hold peaceful demonstrations and that police brutality was unacceptable.

In a week of demonstrations across the country, three people have been killed – two protesters and a policeman – and thousands wounded. Turkey’s government has acknowledged that police used excessive force against some of the protesters.

“The duty of all of us, European Union members as much as those countries that wish to become one, is to aspire to the highest possible democratic standards and practices,” Mr Fule said during a conference near Taksim Square, where the protests began a week ago and quickly spread to more than 75 cities.

“These include the freedom to express one’s opinion, the freedom to assemble peacefully and freedom of media to report on what is happening as it is happening,” he said.

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Turkish media was widely criticised for not covering the initial days of a violent police crackdown on demonstrators staging a sit-in in Taksim Square’s park to protest at a development plan that included a shopping mall.

The protesters have occupied Gezi Park for the past week.

They have vowed to stay and prevent the construction project from going ahead and cutting down trees.

The protests expanded, turning into expressions of discontent with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s 10-year rule and accusing him of autocratic ways.

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