Turkey

Once the centre of the Ottoman Empire, the modern secular republic was established in the 1920s by nationalist leader Kemal Ataturk.

The east and south-east of Turkey saw years of civil war in the 1980s and 1990s between Turkish forces and those of the secessionist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in which over 30,000 people died. The PKK seeks greater political and cultural rights for the Kurdish community.

Turkey became an official EU candidate country in 1999 and, in line with EU requirements, went on to introduce substantial human rights and economic reforms. The death penalty was abolished, tougher measures were brought in against torture and the penal code was overhauled.

In summer 2004 Kurdish secessionists called off a five-year ceasefire following what they called annihilation operations against their fighters by the Turkish authorities. There have since been clashes between Kurdish fighters and Turkish forces in the south-east. Dozens have died in the renewed violence.

Journalists are still at the mercy of arbitrary court decisions that continue to send them to prison and fine them heavily. The country’s new criminal code, designed to help Turkey gain membership of the European Union, came into force on 1 June 2005 and imposes new restrictions on journalists. The vagueness of some parts of it allows judges to unfairly imprison them.

Sources include RSF and the BBC.