Jan Egeland: "Turkey is an important regional power"

Jan Egeland, Deputy Executive Director and Europe Director of Human Rights Watch, yesterday said that Western countries had lost power on a global scale following the Arab Spring, but that the systematic work carried out by Turkey in its own territory, as well as in the Central Asia, Middle East and other regions aimed at protecting, developing and encouraging human rights was vitally important. Egeland, who is currently in Turkey to hold a series of contacts, stated that Turkey was now obviously a global power and that Turkey's responsibilities also increased in terms of improvement of human rights in parallel to its increasing power. Egeland added that emerging powers such as Turkey, Brazil, South Africa and India should take more responsibilities with regard to human rights.