The Independent (London)
September 24, 2005, Saturday
EU REBUKE FOR TURKEY AFTER JUDGES BAN CONFERENCE
BY STEPHEN CASTLE IN BRUSSELS
Turkey received a direct rebuke from the European Commission
yesterday after a Turkish court ordered the cancellation of a
conference of historians to discuss the massacre of Armenians early
in the last century.
Coming just 10 days before Ankara is due to open EU membership
negotiations, the court order prompted an unusually blunt
condemnation from the Commission, which described it as ‘yet another
provocation’.
Last night efforts were under way to salvage the conference and
bypass the legal ruling by holding it today at a new location.
But the court order, which was condemned by the Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan, is a reminder of how far Turkey still needs to travel
to guarantee freedom of expression.
Evidence of the power of the conservatives in Turkish society is
likely to embolden critics of the country’s EU membership bid.
However Ankara’s supporters say that internal reforms will only
continue if Turkey is given the prospect of joining the bloc.
The row is unlikely to derail plans to start EU membership
negotiations on 3 October in Luxembourg. The two leading sceptics
over Turkey’s EU membership, France and Cyprus, have been placated by
language in a declaration stating that Ankara must recognise Cyprus
before it joins the EU. Austria is isolated in its efforts to inject
a new pledge that the negotiations could lead to a ‘privileged
partnership’ instead of full membership.
But the European Commission’s spokeswoman for enlargement, Krisztina
Nagy, said: ‘We strongly deplore this new attempt to prevent Turkish
society from freely discussing its history. The timing of this
decision the day before the opening of the conference looks like yet
another provocation.’ She said the court order ‘illustrates the
difficulties of Turkey, and in particular of the judiciary, to ensure
effective and uniform implementation of the reforms’.
The killing of Armenians during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire
remains a sensitive issue. A number of countries have recognised the
massacres as genocide though that description is flatly rejected by
Turkey.
The furore comes after one of Turkey’s most acclaimed writers, Orhan
Pamuk, was charged with insulting the country’s national character.
The charges, arising out of comments made on Turkey’s killing of
Armenians and Kurds, could lead to a prison sentence of up to three
years.
The conference, which had already been postponed once, was scheduled
to be held at Bogazici University. Aydin Ugur, president of Istanbul
Bilgi University, said the gathering would take place this morning at
Bilgi. He said the court’s order was directed at two other
universities, and had ‘nothing to do with Bilgi’. But Laurent
Leylekian, executive director of the European Armenian Federation,
said: ‘We would be surprised if this kind of conference takes place
in Turkey. There is no will in the government to open the Armenian
file because this issue is deeply linked with the founding of the
Turkish republic.’
One EU diplomat described the court order as ‘stupid’ but added: ‘It
is not going to cause a problem between now and 3 October. The EU has
been very ready to criticise but not so ready to come through with
its commitments.’
The Commission said it would note the issue in its annual report on
candidate countries which is used as a yardstick of the membership
preparation.