Rights court condemns Turks

Strasbourg - The European Court of Human Rights delivered a stinging rebuke to Turkey yesterday, finding it guilty of widespread…

Strasbourg - The European Court of Human Rights delivered a stinging rebuke to Turkey yesterday, finding it guilty of widespread human rights abuses arising from its 1974 invasion of northern Cyprus.

The case was brought by the Cyprus government, which argued that the 27year-old Turkish occupation of the north of the Mediterranean island had trampled on almost every article in the European Human Rights Convention.

The court said in a judgment passed by 16 votes to one that Ankara had violated 14 articles of the convention, including the right to life, the right to liberty and security, the right to freedom of thought and the right to freedom of expression.