United Press International UPI
Feb 15 2008

European leader supports headscarf change

Published: Feb. 15, 2008 at 5:11 PM
BRUSSELS, Feb. 15 (UPI) — The leader of the Christian Democratic
bloc in the European Parliament says adult women in Turkey should be
able to choose to wear headscarves.

Joseph Daul, elected from France, told the Turkish newspaper Today’s
Zaman that he does not oppose Turkey’s reversing its ban on wearing
headscarves in universities. In France, headscarves are banned in
schools but adults are free to make their own decisions, he added.

With 289 parliamentary representatives, the Christian Democrats are
the largest group in the European body.

Daul also said that he might support admitting Turkey to the European
Union and thinks negotiations for Turkish membership should continue.
That puts him at odds with his own president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the most powerful Christian Democrat
on the continent.

On one difficult issue, recognition of the massacre of Turkish
Armenians during World War I, Daul said that he believes what
happened was a genocide. But he said that Turkey should be given time
to deal with its own history and not be penalized 90 years after the
fact.