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November 1,2005 - 09:49 CET | Turkey must stop
torture, allow freedom of worship and limit the
powers of the military in the next two years if it
is to join the EU by 2015, according to a draft
European Commission proposal seen by the Financial
Times.
The paper on "principles, priorities and conditions"
of Turkish EU membership contains 150 short-term
targets for Ankara and will be finalised later this
month.
The draft says Ankara must have "zero tolerance"
against torture, must "adopt a law comprehensively
addressing all the difficulties faced by non-Muslim
religious minorities and communities ... establish
full parliamentary oversight of military and defence
policy" and "ensure the independence of the
judiciary".
The new document containing the 150 targets will be
used to guide negotiations once they get fully under
way in late 2006 or in 2007.
The EU has already begun screening Turkish
legislation for compliance with European law in the
field of science, culture and education after
agreeing to start negotiations on 3 October.
The negotiating mandate is one of the toughest ever
imposed on a candidate country, giving member states
wide scope to use national vetos in closing any of
the 35 chapters of the accession process.
The mandate also states the EU can suspend talks if
it finds "a serious and persistent breach ...of the
principles of liberty, democracy, respect for human
rights and fundamental freedoms and the rule of
law".
Cultural revolution
The issue of European values and Turkey is set to
come to the fore in the accession talks due to its
strong impact on public opinion in both Europe and
Turkey.
Earlier this month, French president Jacques Chirac
caused a stir by saying the country will have to
undergo a "major cultural revolution" in order to
join the EU.
Reports indicate that public support for EU
membership is waning in Turkey itself, while a
Eurobarometer study in September showed that just 35
percent of Europeans back the move and 84 percent of
people believe Turkey must "respect systematically
human rights" to move ahead.
Turkey adopted a new penal code abolishing the death
penalty in June this year and has been a signatory
of the European Convention on Human Rights since
1954.
But international human rights organisations
continue to ask painful questions about the
country's compliance with European norms.
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg
upheld an earlier ruling in May that the Kurdish
minority leader Abdullah Ocalan was denied a free
trial.
Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders
are also worried about article 301 of the new penal
code, which forbids insults against the "symbols of
the state's sovereignty and the honour of its
organs" and could be used to gag the press.
The trial in December of Turkish novelist Orhan
Pamuk over his open discussion of Turkey's Kurdish
and Armenian massacres will return the European
values issue to the spotlight once again.
www.euobserver.com
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