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US Department of State: We support peaceful protests in Istanbul

01 June 2013 08:25 (UTC +04:00)

Baku – APA. The US and the European Union have expressed their concerns May 31 following the brutal police raids on demonstrators protesting against the demolition of Taksim Gezi Park at the heart of Istanbul, APA reports. The Spokesman of U.S. Deparment of State Jen Psaki said that Washington was concerned about the number of injured in the police raids, emphasizing the respect for the rights of the protesters: “We believe that Turkey’s long-term stability, security and prosperity can be guaranteed with the protection of the fundamental freedoms. That’s what the protesters seemed to be doing. These freedoms are very important in a healthy democracy,” Psaki said.

Psaki also noted that they had seen Amnesty International report and the U.S. was gathering information about the incident: “We certainly support universally peaceful protests, as we would in this case, but perhaps we’ll have more to say over the next couple of days”.

Answering question about security of US citizens in the region, Psaki said: “That has not happened at this stage, and we’re still looking into the details around this incident.”

EU Commission made two statements in a day regarding the incident. The second statement condemns excessive and disproportionate use of force by Turkish security forces: “As the European Union, we want to remind Turkey of the importance of fundamental human rights, including freedom of speech and assembly. Any restriction must be within the frame of the boundaries determined in the practice of the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights.”

Co-chairman of Turkey-EU Joint Inter-parliamentary commission, Liberal Democrat Member of the European Parliament Andrew Duff put a rhetorical question: “Does Turkey have a place in Europe?”