US: No shift in Turkey policy after Blinken remarks
WASHINGTON, DC, United States (Kurdistan24) – A US State Department official on Wednesday said there was no policy shift toward Turkey despite an ongoing crackdown on media, including Kurdish news outlets there.
During a daily press briefing in Washington, DC, State Department Spokesperson John Kirby stated earlier remarks by the Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken regarding press freedom in Turkey did not mean a toughening stance toward the country.
“We have been nothing but consistent and clear privately and publicly about our concerns over human rights in Turkey, and I think the Deputy Secretary’s speech last night…laid all that out,” said Kirby in response to a question by a Kurdistan24 correspondent.
On Tuesday, during a speech at an annual conference on US-Turkey relations, Blinken warned against “actions that threatened democratic institutions.”
“When the independence of the judiciary and regulatory agencies are comprised, investors tend to stay away. When standards of evidence are vague or non-transparent, all citizens lose faith in institutions of justice,” explained Blinken according to a transcript of his speech on the State Department website.
“When press outlets are shuttered, and freedom of expression is conditional, the voices of the nation are stifled and so too is innovation,” he continued.
“We have urged and will continue to urge the Turkish government to respond to the failed coup in ways that reinforce public confidence in the rule-of-law and Turkey’s traditions of freedom of expression and pluralism,” Blinken added.
Turkey has come under criticism from the US and the EU countries including Germany after a Monday police raid on the secularist opposition daily Cumhuriyet and the arrest of its 13 columnists.
The raid on Cumhuriyet followed a crackdown on Kurdish media last week when Turkish authorities ordered the closure of 15 news outlets.
The international media freedom advocacy group, Reporters Without Borders, on Wednesday called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan an “enemy of press freedom.”
The support group also revealed Turkey had arrested about 200 journalists since the July 15 military coup attempt.
Editing by Karzan Sulaivany
(Laurie Mylroie contributed to this report from Washington, DC)