That cause became hopelessly compromised in the intensification of the Kurdish conflict in the southeast of the country and the perception among politicians that desperate times justified turning a blind eye to freedom of expression. At the end of 1998, Turkey again did its lap of dishonor for topping CPJ's tally of journalists under lock and key. Governments in Turkey will come and go, but the ultimate engine of reform has to be Turkish society itself. And that change is predicated on the acceptance of the existence of certain irreducible human rights. Until that acceptance takes root in Turkish society, international organizations such as CPJ must remain vigilant.
Turkey is a country that is passionate about politics, and it holds reasonably free elections.
It possesses an increasingly assertive press. Its routine violations of international norms, then, must presume the complicity of a population that is both committed to democratic freedoms yet accepts infringement upon those freedoms in the name of a greater good, defense of the realm. It is instructive to remember that Turks regard the military as the bulwark of democracy. So it just won't do to blame state repression or the vigilantism of the police. Clearly it would be a mistake to expect a government one of whose partners believes in the near infallibility of the Turkish state to be the one to embark on a wholesale program of reform.