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Strasbourg, 27 September ,-- Members of the
European Parliament on Wednesday overwhelmingly
adopted a report leveling stern criticism at
European Union candidate country Turkey over its
recent progress in implementing reforms, especially
in the areas of freedom of expression, rights of
religious minorities and the issue of its
recognition of Cyprus. MEPs voted 429 in favour of
the report, with 71 against and 125 abstentions.
MEPs nevertheless welcomed some recent steps by the
Turkish government in the fields of combating
torture, fighting corruption and extending women's
rights. They also rejected a controversial provision
in the report that would have made Turkey's
recognition as 'genocide' of the killing of over one
million Armenians by Ottoman Turks during and after
World War I a precondition for EU membership.
MEPs called on the Turkish government to recognize
the Republic of Cyprus (an EU member state) and to
withdraw its forces from the island and lift its
embargo on Cypriot vessels and aircraft. The report
- prepared by Conservative Dutch MEP Camiel Eurlings
- reminds Turkey that a lack of progress in
normalising relations with Cypus "will have serious
implications for the negotiation process and could
even bring it to a halt." It also urges Greece and
Turkey "to refrain from tension-prone military
activities."
The parliament called on the Turkish authorities to
facilitate the work of researchers, intellectuals
and academics studying the Armenian mass killings by
ensuring them access to the historical archives and
all the relevant documents. MEPs urged Turkey to
establish diplomatic and good neighbourly relations
with Armenia, to withdraw the economic blockade and
open the land border at an early date.
On the Kurdish question, MEPs noted the continued
intimidation of non-governmental organisations in
southeast Turkey (Kurdistan-Turkey), while welcoming
the start of broadcasts in Kurdish. Eurlings' report
"strongly condemns the resurgence of terrorist
violence on the part of the banned separatist
Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK)" but also urges a
democratic solution to the issue of a Kurdish
homeland in southeast Turkey.
Despite the recent acquittal of leading novelist
Elif Shafak on charges of "insulting Turkishness,"
MEPs said they remained troubled by persisting
barriers to freedom of expression in Turkey. They
called for the abolition or amendment of those
provisions of Turkey's penal code which threaten
freedom of speech, notably Article 301, which
foresees punishment for 'denigrating Turkishness'.
Charges were brought against Shafak and, previously,
another leading Turkish writer, Orhan Pamuk under
Article 301.
Ahead of a debate of his report by the parliament on
Wednesday, Eurlings described it as "tough but
fair." He said it regretted above all a slowdown in
implementing reforms on the role of the security
forces in public life, trade union rights, torture
and ill-treatment of prisoners, as well as
individual freedoms.
The European Commission is due to release its annual
report on Turkey's progress on 8 November. It began
membership talks with Turkey on 3 October last year
and Turkey is not expected to join the EU until 2015
at earliest.
adnki com
The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan".
Others estimate as many as 40 million Kurds live in
Big Kurdistan (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia),
which covers an area as big as France, about half of
all Kurds which estimate to 20 million live in
Turkey
The Kurdish flag flown officially in Iraqi Kurdistan but
unofficially flown by Kurds in Armenia. The flag is
banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey where flying it is
a criminal offence"
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey) wikipedia
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