HUMAN RIGHTS IN TURKEY * by Hikmet Sami Türk

Today we are inaugurating an important symposium organised jointly by the Istanbul Bar Association and Amnesty International. It is a meaningful coincidence that this symposium, which is held on the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is organised at the same time that we are celebrating the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Turkish Republic. I trust this symposium to evaluate these two important occasions in the best way possible....

A TRILOGY OF BASIC HUMAN CONCERNS: HUMAN RIGHTS; SUSTAINABLE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT; HUMAN SECURITY* by Üner Kirdar

Lasting peace, security and prosperity of people depends on a new paradigm - the trilogy of basic human concerns, which consists of:
a) Human rights for development;
b) Sustainable Human Development, and
c) Human Security.

EUROPEAN CONVENTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS: 45 YEARS OF IMPLEMENTATION by Heribert GOLSONG

With the entry into force of the 11th Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights, a new international collective guarantee system was put into place as of 1 November 1998. The structure which was charged with a similar supervisory power, namely a European Commission of Human Rights and a European Court of Human Rights, both bodies composed of part-time members, was dismantled; at the same date...

ON MULTICULTURALISM by Riza TÜRMEN

There is no agreed definition of ‘culture'. Definitions differ according to the intent and the discipline in which the concept is used.
For instance, Ernest Gellner defines it in an ethnological relationship. According to him, culture is the “pattern of behaviour and communication unique to a particular community.”1

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND TURKEY by Gündüz AKTAN

I have examined the European Parliament's (EP) resolutions adopted on Turkey between 1994 and 1998 for this study. They strongly suggest that the EP's approach to the democracy and human rights situation in Turkey is almost exclusively related to the ‘Kurdish Problem'. These resolutions imply that a lack of democratic freedoms and respect for human rights in Turkey has created this problem. As a result, democracy ought to be strengthened in such a way as to solve the problem..

RIGHT TO LIFE * by Safa REISOGLU

The most important socio-political event characterising the second half of the twentieth century is the international effort to determine and protect human rights.
Because of activities and international agreements, particularly following World War II, the concepts of human rights and liberties are no longer simply abstract. They have attained a more concrete and detailed structure with increasing national and international endorsement...

THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF GLOBALISATION: THE QUESTION OF MINORITY RIGHTS by Tamer BACINOGLU

A rank outsider stumbling into the world of German human rights journalism1 might be excused for thinking the human rights issue is some sub-department of anthropology. The ethnicity-oriented approach, which for some critical contemporaries amounts to a ‘biologisation' of human rights,2 underpins all discussion within Germany of Turkey-related issues, but most of all the so-called Kurdish problem...

THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF THE TURKISH MINORITY IN WESTERN THRACE by Michael STEPHEN

I will consider the application of the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne to the situation in which the Turkish Minority finds itself in Western Thrace in this article, and will refer also to other international legal provisions where appropriate, except the European Convention on Human Rights, which will be considered in a separate article...

A DEPORTED NATIONALITY: THE AHISKA TURKS *
by Aysegül Baydar AYDINGÜN

“… after the Fergana events, we were evacuated to Russia, but we could not live there. After making the necessary arrangements we decided to migrate to Turkey by car. One night we stayed in my daughter's house near Georgia, then we continued on our way to Turkey. My grandson asked me: ‘where are we going to sleep tonight grandpa?'.....

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS REGARDING HUMAN RIGHTS IN TURKEY
by Mesut SENOL

It is appropriate to evaluate Turkey's human rights record on the 75th, anniversary of the Republic of Turkey. An evaluation will shed light on Turkey's achievements in this field.
What does human rights mean to us with regard to living in a modern state?.....