German Greens to visit Turkey on 1 November

ddp news agency
29 Oct 04

Text of report by German news agency ddp on 29 October entitled
“High-ranking Greens delegation going to Turkey”

Berlin: On Monday 1 November top representatives of the Greens
will go to Turkey for a five-day informational visit. In Ankara the
eight-member delegation will meet Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan and Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, the Greens Bundestag
Group announced in Berlin on Friday. In addition, the delegation
will talk with representatives of human rights organizations in the
Turkish capital.

In Istanbul, talks with representatives of the Armenian Patriarchate
and the Ecumenical Patriarchate are also on the agenda. Furthermore,
meetings with representatives of the German-Turkish Industrial and
Trade Chamber are planned. At the conclusion of the visit, Deputy
Bundestag Group Chairman Winfried Nachtwei and Greens leader Claudia
Roth will go to the province of Sirnak in eastern Turkey. There,
German armoured personnel carriers have reportedly been used against
Kurds. Roth announced some days ago that she intends to acquaint
herself with the situation by visiting the area personally.

In addition to Nachtwei and Roth, the talks in Turkey will also
be attended by Bundestag Group Chairwomen Krista Sager and Katrin
Goering-Eckardt, Parliamentary Manager Ekin Deligoz, European affairs
expert Rainder Steenblock, Greens Chairman Reinhard Buetikofer, and
Marieluise Beck, the Federal Government’s commissioner for integration.