EU TELLS TURKEY: IMPROVE FREEDOM IF YOU WANT TO JOIN

Morning Star, UK
November 7, 2007 Wednesday

Turkey must improve minority rights, enhance freedom of expression and
religion and press ahead with other crucial reforms for its European
Union membership bid to accelerate, the European Commission said
on Tuesday.

In its annual report on Turkey, the EU executive repeated that Ankara
must normalise its relations with EU member Cyprus and honour a 2005
pact to open its ports and airports to the island.

The pace of reforms "has slowed down" since Turkey’s membership
negotiations open-ed two years ago and ‘significant further efforts
are needed" in crucial areas, according to the the report.

Human rights issues, a dispute over Cyprus and other problems hinder
the bid, the report said.

The EU is particularly concerned about article 301 of the penal code,
which makes it a crime to insult Turkish identity or the country’s
institutions.

The article has been used to prosecute people for making comments about
the mass killings of Armenians by Turks in the early 20th century.

"It is not acceptable that writers, journalists, academics and other
intellectuals … are prosecuted for simply expressing a critical
but completely non-violent opinion," EU enlargement commissioner Olli
Rehn said when presenting the report.

"The infamous article 301 must be repealed or amended without delay,"
he said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress