EUROPEAN COMMISSION URGES TURKEY ON QUICKER REFORM

PanARMENIAN.Net
10.04.2008 16:20 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ EU chief Jose Manuel Barroso began a three-day
visit to Turkey Thursday, where he is expected to urge quicker reform.

A day earlier, Barroso had warned that attempts to ban the country’s
Islamic-rooted governing party could harm ties with the 27-nation bloc.

On Thursday, Barroso will visit the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk,
the revered founder of modern Turkey and the symbol of its secular
identity.

He is scheduled to hold talks with President Abdullah Gul and Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and address the Turkish parliament. He
is expected to pressure Turkey to speed up economic and political
reforms. Barroso is accompanied by EU Enlargement Commissioner
Olli Rehn.

Erdogan’s party has been accused of trying to undermine Turkey’s
constitutional secular principles.

"We should run toward the reform process," Gul told a Turkey-EU
meeting for closer cooperation in Istanbul earlier on Thursday. "I
believe this will take Turkey out of an environment of quarrel and
eliminate concerns of some segments of society."

"Everyone should be sensitive not to damage the principles of
democracy and the institutions," he said, in an apparent reference
to the ruling party.

Barroso on Wednesday said the case against Erdogan’s Justice and
Development Party "could have a major impact also in the way Turkey
is seen" by EU nations and whether it should continue its bid to join
the bloc.

Barroso also reiterated his call for Turkey to revise its infamous
Article 301, which makes it a crime to insult "Turkishness." The law
has been used to charge hundreds of intellectuals and journalists,
including Nobel literature laureate Orhan Pamuk, the AP reports.

The EU opened entry talks with Turkey in 2005, but there has been
little progress amid disagreements over Cyprus and opposition from
France and other EU countries.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress