Turkey: Parliament to resume debates on controversial bill

Monday, September 25, 2006
ANKARA – Turkish Daily News

Parliament will resume debates on Tuesday over a controversial bill on
private schools that the opposition insists would allow the reopening of a
Greek Orthodox seminary near Istanbul and violate provisions of the 1923
Lausanne Treaty.
Debates over the bill, part of a European Union-inspired reform package
supported by the government, were put on ice last week after the government
presented a last-minute proposal to change the definition of minority
schools in the bill — replacing the restricted description of minority as
Greek, Armenian and Jewish with the more general one of non-Muslim — and
allow foreign students to attend them.
The opposition blasted the proposal, saying it contradicts the definition
of minorities provided in the Lausanne Treaty, one of the founding documents
of the Republic of Turkey, and would pave the way for reopening of the
Heybeliada, or Halki, Seminary on an island near Istanbul — closed since
1971.
The CHP said the school was closed due to lack of students but that the
bill would allow it to reopen since it would permit students from Greece and
Greek Cyprus to attend it.
The EU and the United States are asking Turkey to reopen the seminary, and
the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate says it would help Turkey’s Greek Orthodox
minority to train new clerics.
Parliament is expected to resume debates on the original version of the
bill on Tuesday, since Industry and Trade Minister Ali Coskun announced last
week that the government had decided to withdraw the proposal.
On Wednesday Parliament is expected to go ahead with the reform package by
holding debates on a law establishing an ombudsman. The law was earlier
vetoed by President Ahmet Necdet Sezer.
On Thursday it will debate a bill aimed at introducing new standards to
improve productivity and quality in agricultural products.
In the Justice Commission lawmakers will continue debates on a
controversial bill on minority foundations, which CHP claims also violates
the Lausanne Treaty. The Planning and Budget Commission will continue with
debates on a bill on the Supreme Court of Public Accounts.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress