EU WELCOMES TURKEY’S REFORM MOVE

Peninsula On-line, Qatar
Nov 7 2006

BRUSSELS ~U The European Union sought yesterday to defuse a looming
crisis with Turkey over Cyprus and lagging reforms, welcoming a pledge
to amend a key law on freedom of expression in line with EU standards.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan announced the policy shift on Sunday,
three days before a European Commission report expected to sharply
criticise Turkey, saying he was ready to change a law used to prosecute
writers for "insulting Turkishness".

"The stated intention by Prime Minister Recep (Tayyip) Erdogan to bring
Turkish legislation on freedom of expression into line with European
standards is a welcome initiative," EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli
Rehn said in a statement.

"It shows that the Turkish prime minister is personally committed to
free speech and EU accession," Rehn said.

The EU executive is to issue a progress report on Wednesday criticising
a slowdown in reforms in the year since Turkey began EU membership
talks and noting Ankara’s failure to meet a requirement to open its
ports to shipping from Cyprus.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has warned that Turkey’s EU bid will
be in serious trouble if Ankara does not open its ports and airports
to Cyprus.

Diplomats say the negative findings could prompt EU leaders to suspend,
at least partially, accession negotiations with Turkey when they hold
a summit on enlargement in mid-December.

But German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, whose country
takes over the EU’s rotating presidency in January, warned against
any premature move to break off the talks.

"I would strongly urge that in our interests and in the interests of
Turkey, we should not be overly hasty in our conclusions. We ought to
leave scope … for a political compromise between Turkish interests
and the interests of the Cypriots," he told a conference of the Party
of European Socialists in Berlin.

That appeared to contradict Chancellor Angela Merkel, who said in
an interview with Monday’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily that Turkey’s
EU accession talks would be in serious trouble unless Ankara lifted
trade restrictions against Cyprus.

The Commission has repeatedly urged Turkey to amend article 301 of
the penal code used to prosecute journalists and intellectuals such
as Nobel literature prize winner Orhan Pamuk over comments on the
killing of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey.

Only last week, Erdogan appeared to rule out any change, with an eye
on nationalist voters ahead of elections next year. But in a timely
move to show goodwill, he said on Sunday:

"We are ready for proposals to make the article 301 more concrete if
there are problems stemming from it being vague."

"We are studying several options for how we can handle article 301
in harmony with the spirit of the (EU-oriented) reforms," he said,
without elaborating.

Rehn sounded a note of caution, saying Brussels wanted to see practical
action. "We expect this stated intention to be followed by concrete
deeds and we are thus waiting for concrete decisions," he said.

Rehn said pressure for a change in the penal code also reflected the
growing strength of Turkish civil society.

Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot told Reuters in Ankara Turkey needed
to send a "political signal" to the EU that it was doing all it can
to push through reforms, including plans to ease property rights for
religious minorities.