Türkiye decries European resolution as historic 'mistake'

ISTANBUL

Türkiye on Friday hit back at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) over a resolution that Ankara said would go down as a historic "mistake."

"The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) committed a historical mistake through adopting the recommendation and resolution regarding Türkiye on 12 October 2023," the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"With this initiative, PACE is instrumentalizing judicial processes for politics and attempting to close the channels of dialogue. This is against the democratic values that constitute the reason for the existence of the PACE," it added.

Underlining Ankara's status as a founding member of the Council of Europe, the ministry expressed the country's regret that the council's advisory body, PACE, deviated "so far away from its objectives and values."

"This irresponsibility of the PACE aimed at gaining visibility will be remembered with remorse in the future."

The PACE resolution, approved on Thursday, called for the "immediate release" of jailed Osman Kavala, who faced charges related to the 2013 Gezi Park protests. Beginning as a small number of demonstrations in Istanbul, Türkiye, the protests later transformed into nationwide riots that left eight protesters and a police officer dead.

Kavala was acquitted of all charges in February 2020, but an appeals court overturned the verdict in January last year.

He was also accused of involvement in the 2016 defeated coup orchestrated by the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) in Türkiye.