France Denounces Police Repression in Turkey, Germany Calls violence 'Shocking'
France on Thursday denounced a police crackdown on protesters in Turkey, urging restraint and the respect of the right to demonstrate.
"The police repression has claimed two lives, wounded 2,000 and led to 1,700 arrests, it's too much!" European Affairs Minister Thierry Repentin told the Senate, France's upper house.
"No democracy can be built by repressing those who express themselves in the streets. The right to demonstrate, the right to oppose must be respected," he said.
Repentin called for "restraint" and slammed the "excessive" use of force by Turkish authorities.
Meanwhile, Germany's human rights commissioner labelled violence against Turkish protesters "shocking" and called on the government to immediately release detainees who he said were fighting for basic rights.
"I expect the Turkish government to respond to the essentially peaceful demonstrations appropriately and without the use of force," federal commissioner Markus Loening said in a statement.
"The large number of those arrested and injured is shocking," he said.
Three people have been killed, including a policeman, and Turkey's national doctors' union said more than 4,300 have been injured in recent days.
About three million Turks or Germans of Turkish origin live in Germany, making up the country's largest ethnic minority.
The rallies since May 31 accuse Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of increasingly authoritarian rule and seeking to force conservative Islamic values on Turkey, a mainly Muslim but staunchly secular nation.
Loening called on the Erdogan government "to prevent excessive use of force, to refrain from the continuing action against people who exercise their fundamental rights to freedom of expression and assembly, and to release the detainees immediately".
"The detention of demonstrators who exchange information on Twitter is also unacceptable and constitutes a restriction on freedom of expression in Turkey. They too must be released immediately."
Source: Agence France Presse
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