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Sir: In your front page article (1 October)
amongst other reasons as to "Why Europe should
embrace its Muslim neighbour", we are informed that
"today's Turkey, a NATO stalwart, lends credibility
to the notion of a European defence force". But, in
ethical terms, what type of credibility is this?
Turkey's armed forces were implicated in "actions"
against Kurdish communities during the 1990s that
many have defined as being clearly genocidal in
nature and scope. Yet, there have been no war crimes
or genocide trials to hold members of the armed
forces to account.
Many of the people implicated in genocidal actions
and war crimes are still very much part of the
Turkish armed forces structure. In thinking about
the " credibility" of a European defence force,
should we not first consider whether any of these
"elements" will form part of the envisaged " defence
force"?
Over 3,000 villages were destroyed during the 1990s,
thousands of people were murdered by state-inspired
death squads that derived covert support from
sections of the armed forces, and over three million
Kurds were forcibly displaced. It is unfortunate
that the Kurdish "genocide" issue hasn't even
apparently been debated by EU ministers during
accession negotiations. Nor does it seem to be
reflected upon by the media here, even " on the eve
of crisis talks over Turkey's bid to join the EU".
DESMOND FERNANDES
www.independent.co.uk
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