Active debates, particularly on problems relating to political Islam, Kurds, and the history of the Turkish-Armenian conflict at the end of the Ottoman Empire continued in Turkey in 2012.

“Government critics and human rights associations acknowledged that open debate was far more accepted than it was a decade ago. However, many who wrote or spoke on such topics risked investigation and some reported exercising self-censorship,” says the 2012 Report on Human Rights Practices issued by the State Department.

Despite having hundreds of private newspapers, including those in Armenian and Kurdish, authorities routinely censored media with pro-Kurdish or leftist content, particularly in the Southeast, by confiscating materials or temporarily closing down the media source.

“While dialogue with non-Muslim religious communities continued, persons professing faith in minority religions or no faith continued to be subject to discrimination and threats from extremists,” the report said. It is also noted that the European Commission’s October progress report observed that the government’s overall approach to minorities remained restrictive.

The most significant human rights problems during the year were: deficiencies in effective access to justice, government interference with freedom of expression, inadequate protection of vulnerable populations, including violence against women.