Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what representations they have made to the government of Turkey about the case of Ms Gocke Tuyluoglu, the former director of the Open Society Foundation in Turkey; and what support, if any, they have offered her since her first arrest.

We remain concerned by the arrests and trial of 16 civil society figures in June 2019 over the 2013 Gezi Park protests, including Ms Gokce Tuyluoglu, and have been following the cases closely, including the latest hearing on 19 February, which a British Embassy official attended. We have raised their cases at ministerial level with the Turkish Government on several occasions, most recently in January this year. We hope that the outstanding charges against them can be brought to a timely and equitable conclusion.

We have long encouraged Turkey to work towards the full protection of fundamental rights, particularly in the area of freedom of expression. On 28 January at the 35th Universal Periodic Review on Human Rights, one of the recommendations that the United Kingdom put forward for Turkey was protecting freedom of expression, including for journalists and human rights defenders, by decriminalising defamation. We will continue to engage the Turkish Government on these issues and be clear in our expectation that Turkey live up to its human rights obligations, which is essential to the long-term health of Turkish democracy.