U.S. human rights report equates PKK with Turkish government

The U.S Human Rights report 2004 has been published and somehow manages to put Turkey on the same level as the PKK. The authority which published the report appeared to place the working democracy in Turkey on the same level as Iraq and Afghanistan. Despite recent reforms in Turkey, the report outlines instances of torture and suppression of the press. According to the US Foreign Affairs Office’s 2004 Human Rights Country Report, although Turkey has passed important reforms with the aim of fulfilling the Copenhagen Criteria and obtaining accession to the EU, in practice, response to these reforms has remained weak and human rights violations have continued. Although the report first describes the PKK as a terrorist organization, it later equates the PKK with the Turkish government, describing them as ‘two conflicting sides.’ In addition, it defends the view that the violation of human rights continues to occur outside of the conflicted region in the Southeast. Â