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Brussels, 11 Oct. (AKI) - Despite the clear
progress Turkey has made in recent years, human
rights in the country remain a serious concern,
Irish centre-right Euro-MP Simon Coveney - part of a
group that visited the country last week - told
Adnkronos International (AKI). "Turkey is a country
in transition that has made very significant legal
changes to open accession talks. But even the most
positive reformers would not say all the legislation
has been put into practice," he cautioned. EU entry
talks began last week.
"It's a historic time to be in Turkey, but there are
still serious problems to be solved: notably the
issue of Cyprus, and the Kurdish question, which is
bound up with human rights. These involve cultural,
social and political change," said Coveney.
Coveney was one of seven MEPs from the European
Parliament's human rights subcommittee which visited
Turkey from 5-8 October, just days after it began
open-ended membership talks with the European Union,
which are not expected to lead to entry before 2015.
There are 15 million Kurds in Turkey out of its 70
million population, and the Turkish government has
now acknowledged the 'Kurdish problem' a significant
step forward from the past, Coveney said, adding:
"Turkey is a very different country from five years
ago. Clear progress has been made, but there is
still a long way to go."
"I was very concerned to hear allegations of human
rights abuses, ongoing reports of instances of
torture and arbitrary arrests. But this is a
response to armed militias. Both the Turkish
government and the Kurds need to make an effort to
solve the Kurdish problem. The lack of a peace
process in southeastern Turkey is a huge a huge
stumbling- block to further progress," Coveney
added.
During their visit to Ankara and to the southeastern
region of Van - the poorest and most divided in
Turkey - Coveney and the other MEPs met with all the
major human rights groups, women's and teachers'
associations, lawyers and top government
politicians, including foreign minister Abdullah Gul,
who is spearheading the reform process in Turkey.
"The impression I got from our meetings is that
Turks are very realistic and pragmatic about
implementing the reforms needed to join the EU. They
feel it is important for Turkey to change and to be
treated as an equal partner with the EU, that can
add to it," said Coveney.
Asked whether Turkey will be able to meet all the
normal EU entry conditions, including those on human
rights standards, given recent reports of alleged
atrocities carried out by the Turkish security
forces, Coveney said: "I predict Croatia will join
the European Union in the next five years: showing
it is possible to change." Grave human rights abuses
were perpetrated in the Balkans during the 1990s
breakup of the former Yugoslavia, although these now
appear to have been eradicated.
Coveney's fellow MEP Richard Howitt told Britain's
Guardian newspaper that the delegation had received
accounts of alleged Turkish military atrocities -
such as cutting off the ears and gouging out the
eyes of alleged Kurdish separatist sympathisers,
carying out indiscriminate shootings, widespread
extrajudicial killings, as well arbitary arests,
rapes, and night raids on homes. The allegations
have been denied by a Turkish foreign ministry
spokesman Namik Tan.
Commenting on the prevalence of torture in Turkey,
Helene Flautre, a French Green MEP who headed the
cross-party delegation said their impressions
confirmed statistics indicating that the use of
torture has declined in Turkey, "not only in
quantity but also in severity". "However,
convictions seem to be lacking," she said.
Vittorio Angnoletto, an Italian Refounded Communist
MEP on the European Parliament's human rights
subcommittee confirmed the lack of convictions for
human rights abuses in Turkey, describing an actual
incident that took place in the town of Kiziltepe
near the Kurdish capital, Viyarbakir on 21 November,
2004.
On that date, armed plain-clothes policemen - whose
identities are known - shot a Kurdish lorry driver
dead and pumped thirteen bullets into the man's son,
killing him as he attempted to escape. "None of the
policemen has been tried. Instead, the Kurdish
family is on trial, accused of subverting the unity
of the state," said Angnoletto, who met the town's
mayor and members of the family two days after the
murders.
Abductions, torture and rape have been well
documented by human rights groups in Turkey,
Angnoletto stated. "I was in favour of opening EU
membership talks with Turkey, in order to use these
next 10-15 years to pressure it to improve human and
rights and carry out political reforms," he said.
But so far, the Turkish government has limited
itself to lofty declarations of principle without
putting its promises into effect in a number of key
areas, Angnoletto said.
The first is democracy: "Turkey has still not
changed its electoral law, subjecting the vote to a
10 percent threshold that prevents Kurdish political
groups from entering parliament. Political dialogue
and a peace process needs an institutional
framework," he emphasised.
Secondly, before the start of EU talks, Erdogan
visited Viyarbakir, saying the Kurdish question must
be resolved,Angnoletto noted, adding: "He has done
nothing since. The Kurdish language is still
forbidden in schools and public offices."
Third, Turkey has ignored the European Court of
Human Rights ruling that the PKK separatist leader
Abdullah Ocalan - whose sentence was commuted to
life in 2000 - be re-tried.
Fourthly, the same court ordered that Turkey
compensate expropriated Kurdish families in Turkish
Kurdistan: "It has never done so, Angnoletto said.
Fifth, the Turkish government committed to reforming
the penal code, but has instead gone in the opposite
direction. "It has introduced a new law forbidding
lawyers to 'articulate the position of clients' when
these are human rights activists 'attacking national
unity', an offence for which attorneys can be
suspended from the Turkish bar association. "As a
result, no Turkish lawyers are now willing to defend
Ocalan," he said.
Sixth, Ankara has failed to pass a law limiting the
overweening power of the Turkish army, which remains
independent of the Turkish government and
parliament. "The military remains Turkey's number
one player," he stressed.
"I am afraid that economic and commercial questions,
and the excessive, reactionary and racist polemics
over Islam will dominate the European Commission's
negotiations with Turkey - at the expense of human
rights and democracy, which are the real things to
discuss" Angnoletto warned.
Turkey's elimination of human rights abuses and
democratisation in the coming years will depend on
how much pressure Europe's human rights groups put
on its governments and political institutions,
Angnoletto said. "It is vital that the European
Parliament follows Turkey's EU membership talks
closely, regularly questioning European Commission
representatives," he concluded
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