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BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - The official in charge
of European Union expansion accused Turkey of
provocation on Tuesday, saying it was no coincidence
that the trial of a Turkish novelist would clash
with a EU summit.
Olli Rehn, the EU commissioner overseeing expansion
plans, said the prosecution of author Orhan Pamuk
violated a human rights convention.
He also said it would take at least 10-15 years to
finish negotiations with Turkey on its possible
accession to the bloc, and warned Ankara that the
pace of the talks will depend on how quickly it
recognizes Cyprus.
``The Pamuk case raises serious questions about the
interpretation of Turkey's new penal code. The Dec.
16 date can't be just a coincidence, it has to be a
provocation,'' Rehn told the European Parliament's
foreign affairs committee. Dec. 16 is also the date
of an EU summit.
Rehn added that the case violated the European
Convention on Human Rights.
Pamuk has been charged with insulting Turkey's
national character and could face prison for his
comments on Turkey's killing of Armenians and Kurds.
``Thirty-thousand Kurds and one million Armenians
were killed in these lands and nobody but me dares
to talk about it,'' Pamuk was quoted as saying in an
interview with a Swiss newspaper magazine in
February.
The ``one million Armenians'' refers to Armenians
killed by Ottoman Turks around the time of World War
I, which Armenians and several other nations
recognize as the first genocide of the 20th century.
Turkey vehemently denies that a genocide took place,
saying the death toll is inflated and Armenians were
killed in a civil war as the Ottoman Empire
collapsed, eventually giving way to the Turkish
Republic in 1923.
Turkey, which has been trying to improve its human
rights record as it vies for EU membership, is
extremely sensitive about both the Armenian and
Kurdish issues, and the new Turkish penal code makes
it a crime to denigrate Turkey's national identity.
The code - adopted at the EU's insistence - was
debated earlier this year and freedom of speech
advocates said the clause on national identity was
too vague and could lead to the imprisonment of
artists, scholars and journalists.
Rehn said the European Commission will continue to
closely monitor human rights issues in Turkey, but
still expects the accession negotiations to start on
Oct. 3 as scheduled, despite EU government grumbling
over Turkey's refusal to recognize Cyprus.
In August, Turkey signed a customs protocol
extending its existing customs arrangements with the
25-member EU to the 10 new members including Cyprus.
But it accompanied its signature with a separate
declaration saying this did not mean it was formally
recognizing the divided Mediterranean island.
Rehn said formal recognition ``was not a
precondition'' to start the Oct. 3 talks. ``However,
it is regrettable that Turkey had to issue a
declaration accompanying the protocol,'' he said.
The European Court of Human Rights - based in
Strasbourg, France - ordered Turkey on Tuesday to
pay more than $85,932 to the relatives of two
suspected members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers'
Party who were killed in a police raid in 1996.
An anti-terrorist squad shot Omer Bayram and Ridvan
Altun in an operation which the court said violated
three articles of the human rights convention.
www.guardian.co.uk
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