City of London criticised for giving humanitarian award to Turkish president's wife
'Leaders at the City of London Corporation have been criticised after the prestigious Mansion House was used to honour the “humanitarian” work of the wife of the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has thrown thousands of his own people in jail.
Emine Erdogan was given an award by the Global Donors Forum at the prestigious venue “in recognition of her humanitarian service”.
Her husband’s regime in Turkey is seen by many as brutal and dictatorial, increasingly run by a clique of his close family and friends.
According to Amnesty International, since a coup attempt two years ago, more than 180 media outlets have been shut down and 170,000 public sector workers fired for activism or dissent. Currently, some 50,000 people are imprisoned awaiting trial.
One guest at the event said: “It’s extraordinary – outrageous – to do this here. What were the City of London thinking of?”
In her acceptance speech, Mrs Erdogan said her philanthropy was “about striving to establish a fair and just order and pursuing compassionate policies. It is about enabling social justice and equal opportunity.”
She was speaking within hours of her husband boycotting Europe’s annual conference on human rights for the second year running because organisers refused to refuse entry to organisations he disapproved of.'
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