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Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu (centre) EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini (left) and EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn speak during a joint press conference after their meeting, in Ankara last week. Mogherini on Thursday expressed ‘strong concerns’ over the continued detentions of academics and activists in Turkey
FORMER leader of the pro-Kurdish Turkish opposition People’s Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtas warned today that his continued detention is an indication of “how grave the recent situation in Turkey is.”
He made a statement on social media following the announcement by Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu that Ankara is set to appeal against the recent European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruling that Mr Demirtas should be released from pre-trial detention where he has been held since November 2016.
Mr Demirtas said the government has failed to learn lessons from the court judgement and chooses instead to insist that it is not binding “because it does not want to leave aside such a sharp sword as the judiciary.”
CLAUDIA WEBBE looks at how Britain’s Nato ally has upped the stakes in its effort to silence domestic dissenting voices
