The New Anatolian, Turkey
Oct 27 2006

Linden: Reconciliation needs more freedom of _expression

The New Anatolian / Ankara

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) President Rene
van der Linden yesterday strongly criticized France’s lower house of
Parliament for passing a controversial bill that aims to ban
questioning of Armenian genocide claims.

"This is not in line with one of the basic principles of human
rights, freedom of _expression," Linden said during his visit to
Ankara yesterday. PACE head underlined that reconciliation efforts
among countries need more freedom of _expression among all involved
parties, not unconstructive moves to restrict people’s free
_expression of their ideas. Van der Linden also criticized those in
Turkey who are using the French bill as a pretext not to change
controversial Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) which sets
out penalties for "insulting Turkishness." The PACE head clearly
stated yesterday that the Turkish government has to amend the
article, which has been used to bring charges against dozens of
journalists, publishers and scholars.

Van der Linden, during his visit to Ankara yesterday, met with
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and Turkish deputies. Before
his departure from Ankara, the PACE president spoke to journalists.

Recalling his support for Turkey’s EU membership process and
highlighting the importance of continuation of the reform process,
Van der Linden underlined that this was in the interest of both
Europe and Turkey. He said that the second phase of the reform
process, the implementation was understandably much more difficult,
since it necessitated the change of mentalities and convincing
people.

Saying that Turkey seems overly frustrated by the criticisms of
Europe, Van der Linden said that most of these criticisms were in
fact aimed at assisting Turkey in the reform process. In a move to
further encourage Turkey on its EU accession process, he said that
Turkish people should not overestimate current discussions in Europe
and see that it will be EU in 15 years later which Turkey will join.

On the debates of so-called Armenian genocide, PACE head stressed the
necessity for all countries to come into terms with its history for a
better future, but he criticized France’s lower house of Parliament
passing a controversial bill to ban questioning of Armenian genocide
claims. "This is a back-step from the freedom of _expression, a bad
example," Van der Linden told reporters, and expressed hope that the
controversial bill will not be passed by the upper house.

On the possible "train crash" between Turkey and EU late this year
due to the Cyprus problem, Van der Linden said that this is in no
one’s interest and continuation of Turkey’s EU process was in the
interest of both Europeans and Turkey.

The PACE president will attend a roundtable discussion with legal and
human rights experts at Bilgi University in Istanbul today. On
Saturday he will lay a wreath at the Gallipoli War Memorial and visit
the war graves there as well as meet with a delegation from the
Canakkale Provincial Council.