PACE PRESIDENT CALLS ON TURKEY FOR REFORMS ON FREEDOM OF SPEECH, MINORITY RIGHTS
PanARMENIAN.Net
16.01.2008 18:14 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The president of the Parliamentary Assembly of
the Council of Europe (PACE) Rene van der Linden yesterday urged
Turkey to press ahead with reforms and pay more attention to freedom
of expression and minority rights two areas that await further
improvement if the country is to proceed on its thorny road toward
the European Union.
I am one of the biggest supporters of Turkey’s EU membership as long as
Turkey sticks to its commitments, Rene van der Linden told reporters
following a meeting with Parliament Speaker Koksal Toptan. He warned
Turkey to pay much more attention to the much-criticized article 301
of the Turkish penal code that makes it a crime to insult Turkish
identity.
The contentious article has landed a string of intellectuals in
court due to denigrating "Turkishness" and mostly for comments on
the Armenian Genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Empire.
Linden also urged the Turkish government and Parliament to improve
minority rights. I am sure that you, the new Parliament and the new
government will pay attention to these issues and contribute to their
solution, he told Toptan, the Turkish Daily News reports.