ASSOCIATED PRESS STUDY

The American news agency Associated Press (AP) addressed the governments of 66 countries to obtain information for their study on terror crimes. AP now announced that terror laws have become stricter worldwide and that the number of arrests in this context has increased since the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York on 11 September 2001.

Number of terror convictions in Turkey rocketed

According to Milliyet newspaper, a total of 119,044 people were arrested worldwide since 9/11 2001; 35,117 of whom were convicted of terror crimes.

Turkey takes the lead with 12,089 convicts for terror offences which make up more than a third of all terror convictions around the world. There is still a significant gap to China as the second country on the list with about 7,000 convictions. Hence, the number of people convicted on terror charges in Turkey and China together sum up to more than half of all terror convictions worldwide.

AP referred to the conflict with the Kurds in Turkey that has been going on for a long time. The American news agency pointed to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's statement that Kurds were being treated in a balanced manner and caimed that "One side sees [a person] as a fighter for freedom and the other side sees him as a terrorist".

The research also highlights that the number of convicts of terror offences in Turkey has rocketed after amendments of the Anti-Terror Law from 273 in 2005 to 6,345 in 2009.

AP also gave a few examples of experiences in Turkey. "Nacide Tokova, mother of two children, was sentenced to seven years in prison because she carried a banner during a demonstration reading 'Free leadership and free identity or resistance and revenge until the end'. However, Tokova is illiterate and did not even know what was written on the banner". (EKN/VK)