EP TO FINALLY DEBATE SHARPLY CRITICAL TURKEY REPORT
The New Anatolian, Turkey
Sept 4 2006
After being postponed from July, debates in the European Parliament
of a draft report entitled "Turkey’s Progress Towards Accession,"
which includes a host of criticisms of Turkey, are set to start today.
Debates on the report, prepared by EP Committee on Foreign Affairs
Rapporteur and MEP Camiel Eurlings, were postponed to Sept. 4 after
the submission of some 400 proposals for amendments to it.
While some MEPs at the time stated that the debate was postponed
as it would take a long time to translate the amendment requests,
some European diplomats stated that there are many conflicting views
surrounding the proposed amendments.
The draft report criticized a number of issues, including
Cyprus, a slowdown in the EU reform process, the situation in the
southeast, problems with religious minorities, cultural rights and
civilian-military relations. It raised particular concerns about
last November’s Semdinli incident, during which a bookshop in the
southeast was allegedly bombed by members of the security forces,
and called for an impartial and objective investigation of it.
Turkey’s reservations about opening its airports and harbors to Greek
Cypriots will have serious implications for the EU process and could
even bring it to a halt, warned the draft report. The highly critical
document also called on Turkey to take steps towards the recognition
of the Greek Cypriot administration during its accession process and
raised the idea of an early withdrawal of forces from the Turkish
Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). It also called on the European
Council to renew efforts to implement trade regulations with Northern
Cyprus.
The EP report severely condemned the killing in May of Council of State
Judge Mustafa Yucel Ozbilgin, expressing concern over the low level
of security offered to judges by the police despite clear and public
threats, and called on the government to rectify the situation. The
EP also condemned a resurgence of violence in the southeast by the
terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and stressed that there can
never be an excuse for violence against Turkish citizens in any part
of the country. The report also expressed solidarity with Turkey in
fighting terrorism.
On the Armenian issue, the EP took note of a Turkish proposal to set
up a bilateral committee of experts to deal with controversial past
incidents and of Armenia’s position on the proposal. It also urged
the Turkish and Armenian governments to continue their process of
reconciliation leading to a mutually acceptable proposal and asked
Turkey to take the necessary steps, without any preconditions, to
establish diplomatic and good neighborly relations with Armenia and
open their land border as soon as possible.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
