The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe expressed disappointment on Monday after Turkey's decision to bar two politicians who were part of a 100-strong mission to monitor the country's May 14 elections on Monday.
Danish MP Soren Sondergaard and Swedish MP Kadir Kasirga had their accreditations denied by Turkish authorities, the parliamentary assembly of the 57-member OSCE said.
"We are disappointed with this step taken by the Turkish authorities, which could impact negatively on the work of the international observer mission," the assembly said.
It said Turkey "should not, directly or indirectly, influence the composition of the mission".
It said Mr Sondergaard and Mr Kasirga had been refused entry because of statements made "as independent members of parliament".
The 100-strong team is made up of politicians from OSCE member countries.
Another OSCE body is sending a team of almost 400 people to observe Turkey's vote, in which President Recep Tayyip Erdogan faces the toughest challenge of his two-decade rule.
Election rallies in Turkey ahead of May 14 elections - in pictures
Mr Sondergaard, from Denmark's Socialist-Green Alliance, said last week that Turkey had denied him access because he had previously visited the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.
He told Danish public television TV2 that Ankara had accused him of "promoting a terrorist organisation".
The SDF led the fight against ISIS in Syria.
Turkey regards it as an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which it classifies as a terrorist organisation.
In 2018, Ankara barred two politicians, from Germany and Sweden, from an election observer mission sent by the OSCE's parliamentary assembly.
The OSCE was founded in 1975 to foster relations between the West and the Eastern Bloc. Its current members include Nato countries and Russia.
The First Monday in May
Director: Andrew Rossi
Starring: Anna Wintour, Karl Lagerfeld, John Paul Gaultier, Rihanna
Three stars
How to help
Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
2289 – Dh10
2252 – Dh 50
6025 – Dh20
6027 – Dh 100
6026 – Dh 200
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Company profile
Company name: Suraasa
Started: 2018
Founders: Rishabh Khanna, Ankit Khanna and Sahil Makker
Based: India, UAE and the UK
Industry: EdTech
Initial investment: More than $200,000 in seed funding
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
South Africa's T20 squad
Duminy (c), Behardien, Dala, De Villiers, Hendricks, Jonker, Klaasen (wkt), Miller, Morris, Paterson, Phangiso, Phehlukwayo, Shamsi, Smuts.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
