EP Criticizes Erdogan for Overreacting
By Selcuk Gultasli

Thursday 07, 2005
zaman.com

The European Parliament (EP) Socialist Group Vice Chair Jan Marinus
Wiersma has said that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
is going too far in suing cartoonists and his criticisms of Turkish
writer Orhan Pamuk.

Meeting with Turkish journalists, Wiersma told them that he laughs
at cartoons about him and that he was disappointed by Erdogan’s
preference to sue. Wiersma also stated that although what happened
to Armenians is not the same as the holocaust, there are similarities
adding that gestures could be made without recognizing the so-called
genocide. Touching on the Cyprus issue too, Wiersma expects an attempt
for a solution after October 3rd and he took pains not to criticize
the Greek Cypriots for their refusal of the Annan Plan.

Meanwhile, two parliamentarians of Turkish Republic of Northern
Cyprus (TRNC) for the first time attended an EP session as observers.
Wiersma said that the TRNC deputies were in the group as “non-official
observers” because TRNC has not been recognized.

Brussels