The head of the Council of Europe, the continent's leading human rights watchdog, told Reuters it was worried about any violations of rights in Turkey after the jailing of President Tayyip Erdogan's chief political rival and hundreds of arrests that followed mass protests.
Secretary General Alain Berset said the problem of democratic backsliding should be addressed as a global phenomenon, adding that the Council had no specific position on probes under way into numerous Turkish opposition figures.
Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu was jailed last month pending trial over charges of corruption, a move that triggered the largest protests in more than a decade, with students, opposition parties and others calling it politicized and anti-democratic. The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) chose Imamoglu last month as its future presidential candidate.