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Why Turkey may not want to join the ICC

There is pressure for Turkey to join the International Criminal Court, especially due to the country's EU accession process, but the government has its reasons to resist.
An employee of the International Criminal Court (ICC) building in The Hague, The Netherlands, stands on its roof being before evacuated by police, on August 3, 2013. The man had been standing on the roof of the tribunal for sixteen hours before the police arrested him. According to first reports the man wanted to commit suicide.  AFP PHOTO / ANP - EVERT JAN DANIELS = netherlands out        (Photo credit should read Evert-Jan Daniels/AFP/Getty Images)

The Coalition for the International Criminal Court announced Sept. 4 that Turkey will be the focus of its monthlong campaign for global justice in September. The coalition, which is composed of 2,500 nongovernmental organizations in 150 countries, is demanding that Turkey ratify the Rome Statute — the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Speaking to Al-Monitor, Gunal Kursun, president of the Human Rights Agenda Association and member of the Turkish National Coalition for the ICC, said that although being a member of the ICC is not a benchmark concerning the entry into the European Union, the 2013 Progress Report also mentioned that “Turkey did not sign the statute of the International Criminal Court.”

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