NEW EU WARNING ON TURKEY REFORMS
BBC News, UK
Sept 27 2006
Turkey faces years of tough EU membership negotiations The European
Parliament has adopted a report warning that the pace of reform in
Turkey has slowed, jeopardising Ankara’s EU membership bid.
But MEPs dropped a clause demanding that Turkey recognise as "genocide"
the mass killings of Armenians in 1915.
Turkey maintains that the Armenians were casualties of turmoil as the
Ottoman empire crumbled. Armenians say up to 1.5 million died in a
"genocide".
The non-binding report said Turkey had failed to ensure freedom
of expression.
It called for the abolition or amendment of Turkish laws such as
Article 301 "which threaten European free speech norms".
Article 301 of the Turkish penal code has been used to prosecute
several well-known authors for "insulting Turkishness".
Cyprus deadlock
The MEPs also called on Turkey to recognise the Republic of Cyprus
and lift its embargo on Cypriot ships and planes, saying continued
failure to do so "will have serious implications for the [EU]
negotiation process and could even bring it to a halt".
The report was adopted by 429 votes in favour to 71 against, with
125 abstentions.
It said the European Parliament "regrets the slowing down of the reform
process" in Turkey, though it welcomed some recent Turkish steps to
crack down on torture and corruption and to extend women’s rights.
On the Armenian question, MEPs said Turkey must come to terms with
its past, although recognition of the "genocide" was not a condition
for EU accession.
The European Commission is to publish its next annual report on
Turkey’s progress on 8 November.
The parliament’s report came a day after Bulgaria and Romania were
given the go-ahead to join the EU on 1 January 2007.
In Ankara, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned the EU
against introducing any new entrance criteria.