Dr. Zehra Arat from Purchase College at State University of New York (SUNY) gave a seminar at Bilkent on October 14. Dr. Arat has published two books entitled "Democracy and Human Rights in Developing Countries" and "Reconstructing Images of Turkish War."

Dr. Arat discussed several basic concepts in her speech regarding human rights and democracy. Her key principle was that "while human rights are expanding; democracy is decreasing."

The development of human rights has expanded through four generations. The first generation was for society to obtain basic civil-political rights. Next came economic and social rights. The third generation involved environmental protection, the right to peace and development. The recent shift in interpretation of human rights focuses on the rights of the most vulnerable segments of society such as children, women and the disabled. This fourth generation is relatively new and is not accepted by a large portion of the world yet.

Dr. Arat discussed the Freedom House report and also referred to Turkey's position in the world with respect to human rights.

According to social research scholars, 10 out of the 22 Latin American countries have heavy abuses of human rights that should be incompatible with their democracy. This kind of democracy is referred to as an "illiberal democracy."

Based on Turkey's human rights record, socio-economic position and unemployment rate, Dr. Arat claimed that Turkey fits into the definition of an illiberal democracy.

Reported by Hüsnü Ada (IR-3)