Thanks very much, Mr. Chair.
Thanks, Mr. Neve, for your testimony today. I have three questions for you. Since we have seven minutes, I'd like to get them out to you.
First, Cheryl Hardcastle, who is our regular committee representative, and Hélène Laverdière, who is the foreign affairs critic for the NDP, wrote to the foreign affairs minister in February 2017 regarding the five Canadians being detained in Turkey. They did not receive a response until February 2018, so it took a full year. We're concerned, of course, that the government is not taking this seriously, to take a full year to even reply to a letter. Do you have comments about that?
Secondly, in what ways could we be putting pressure on the Turkish government to respect human rights? As an ally, we're seeing a real deterioration there, as you've recounted. What are other ways that Canadians or the Canadian federal government could be putting pressure on Turkey to respect human rights?
Thirdly, we have been hearing accounts from The Independent and The New York Times about the catastrophic situation in Afrin in northwestern Syria, the killing of hundreds of civilians by the Turkish air force and the Turkish army. We are also hearing accounts of ethnic cleansing taking place, or the initial signs of ethnic cleansing.
I wonder if you give credence to those reports or if it's a situation that Amnesty International is following worldwide.