The Turkish Connection
"There's at least fourteen families [in my neighbourhood in Ottawa]. I mean ladies [with kids]. All their husbands have been arrested [in Turkey]."
"When my [American] visa expired, I decided to come here [Canada] instead of going to Turkey and being arrested."
"I'm taking all these families to parliamentarians to raise awareness [about the situation in Turkey]. I have visited more than 200 politicians."
Vaner Kaplan, human rights activist, Ottawa
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| People protest on Parliament Hill against Turkey's human rights violations. CBC |
"Canadians believe in the importance of standing up for human rights, and our foreign policy reflects that. We have voiced our concerns over the human rights situation in Turkey and have advocated for the importance of respecting human rights in public and in private."Originally from Turkey himself, Vaner Kaplan lived for a while in the United States and worked for human rights NGOs. He now lives in Ottawa and is involved as an immigration consultant. As a human rights activist, he has done more than his share of trying to alert the Canadian government to Turkey's threat toward its own citizens. Turkish President Tayyip Recep Erdogan's authoritarian Islamist credentials are well known internationally, but that Turkey remains a member of NATO, giving it a certain degree of immunity from criticism and actionable sanctions given its abusive conduct is absurd.
"Global Affairs Canada is aware of the arrest and detention of Canadian citizens in Turkey. Consular services are being provided to the Canadian citizens and their families."
"Officials at the Embassy of Canada in Ankara are in contact with local authorities and closely monitoring."
Global Affairs Canada
The European Union is dependent on Turkey to act as a stopgap between another resurgence of refugees from Syria flooding the continent, submitting to Erdogan's blackmail in a desperate bid to ensure that refugees will remain out of Europe. While it can be understood that Europe has absorbed more than sufficient numbers of refugees from North Africa and the Middle East, falling victim to Erdogan's malicious Islamist agenda bodes ill for all; Europe in his helpless thrall, and refugees being returned to the horrendous slaughter imposed on Sunni Syrians by President Bashar al Assad, a Shiite Alawite aligned with Iran.
Over three thousand Turkish families have landed as asylum seekers during the past three years in Canada. Vaner Kaplan advocates for them, and gives them active assistance in settling in Canada. He represents a group called Advocates of Silenced Turkey in Canada, a group that documents human rights violations in Turkey, pressing for changes from abroad. And well they might hope to, for human rights violations are not hard to find in Turkey, primarily aimed against its Kurdish population. Those in Turkey hoping for change are soon abused of that faint hope.
The search to find asylum elsewhere abroad is ongoing. Mr. Kaplan helps Turkish newcomers to find living arrangements, access social services for people who are unable to orient themselves as speedily as he can manage to with his use of English and his experience. When a near-to-successful coup took place in Turkey in 2016, Turkish citizens were treated to the lashing wrath of their president who had teachers, lawyers, military personnel, newspeople, police arrested en masse, accusing them of collaboration with his arch enemy Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen.
Gulen may be out of reach of the death sentence Erdogan has imposed upon him since he lives in the U.S., but his followers are not. The state of emergency that was imposed after the attempted coup has never been lifted. Erdogan has manipulated the constitution through a rigged vote to give himself even more powers, and to ensure that he will continue as president of Turkey, taking it further along the road to complete Islamization and Sharia law. Laws have been passed beyond scrutiny of the Turkish parliament. Over 50,000 people remain in pretrial detention on charges of belonging to the Hizmet movement.
While Turkey will never now be able to join the European Union, a long-attempted goal under a more secular Turkey which still had problems with human rights violations -- particularly with respect to its Kurdish population -- that it continues to be a member in good standing of NATO, despite moving close to Russia,its hostility to the West and defying NATO shared defence instruments by aligning Turkey with Russian-manufactured military technology, is absolutely inexplicable.
Labels: Canada, Human Rights, NATO, Refugees, Turkey
posted by Pieface @ Saturday, August 17, 2019
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