Turkey put on defensive as al Bashir’s planned visit invites controversy

Thomas Seibert, Foreign Correspondent

• Last Updated: November 05. 2009 10:52PM UAE / November 5. 2009 6:52PM GMT

ISTANBUL // A planned visit by Sudan’s president, Omar al Bashir, to Istanbul next week has put the Turkish government on the defensive, with critics accusing Ankara of undermining its own commitment to the rule of law by hosting a man accused of crimes against humanity.

“We do not want him to come,” Ozlem Altiparmak, co-ordinator of the Coalition for the International Criminal Court, a pressure group made up of 16 Turkish human rights organisations that want Turkey to submit to the court’s jurisdiction, said yesterday. “He is a fugitive from international justice.” Although Turkey is not part of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Turkish laws are enough to arrest Mr al Bashir when he lands in Istanbul next Monday, she said.

The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Mr al Bashir in March for crimes committed in Sudan’s Darfur region. The Sudanese president visited Turkey twice before the warrant was issued, in January and August 2008. Next Monday, he is expected to take part in a meeting of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, or OIC, in Istanbul. “For a country on the way to EU membership, this is unacceptable,” Ms Altiparmak said about the invitation to Mr Bashir.

Turkey has strengthened its ties with Sudan in recent months. Earlier this year, Sudan lifted visa requirements for Turks and said Turkish investors in the country would be exempt from tax. Mr al Bashir’s expected visit comes shortly after Turkey, the only Muslim member of Nato, raised eyebrows in the West for calling off a joint military exercise with long-time partner Israel while simultaneously boosting ties with Syria and Iran, sworn enemies of Israel.

At least officially, Turkey says all it wants is to strengthen peace and prosperity in the region. During a lecture at a think tank in Ankara this week, Abdullah Gul, the president, listed “democratic values, the rule of law, respect for human rights, transparency, accountability” as his country’s guiding principles. Mr Gul also denied that Turkey was turning away from the West and towards the Muslim east. “Turkey goes east as well as west, north and south, in every direction,” the president said.

But public commitments to democratic principles are undermined when Turkey rolls out the red carpet for a politician like Mr Bashir, Ms Altiparmak said. “How can Erdogan criticise Israel for the Gaza operation and then talk to Bashir? It is a double standard.”

Ms Altiparmak said human rights groups tried to get Mr al Bashir arrested during his latest visit to Turkey last year. Article 13 of the Turkish penal code says crimes like genocide and crimes against humanity can be prosecuted in Turkey even if they have been committed by foreigners or in foreign countries. But the demand to have Mr Bashir arrested was rejected by authorities, Ms Altiparmak said.

It is doubtful whether it will be different this time. “Turkey will not touch al Bashir,” the news channel Haberturk reported yesterday. The daily Radikal newspaper quoted foreign ministry officials in Ankara as saying that although the OIC meeting will take place in Istanbul, Turkey was not the host of the conference and not responsible for who would be invited.

As an example, the officials pointed to the fact that representatives of the Greek republic of Cyprus, a country not recognised by Ankara, had taken part in international meetings on Turkish territory. They also said Turkey was not bound by ICC arrest warrants because it had not ratified the Rome Statute of 2002, which set up the international court.

That line of argument is unlikely to calm critics. Gungor Mengi, editor of the Vatan newspaper, called on non-governmental organisations in Turkey to take action in order to prevent Mr Bashir from travelling to Turkey.

tseibert@thenational.ae