EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT ADOPTS REPORT ON TURKEY

Turkish Press
May 22 2008

STRASBOURG – The European Parliament (EP) adopted on Wednesday a
report on Turkey urging the government to accelerate reforms.

In a plenary session the EP debated and voted the report, prepared by
Dutch parliamentarian Ria Oomen-Ruijten. The report is a non-binding
and recommendatory one.

The parliament rejected amendments to the report regarding the
incidents of 1915 submitted by a group of French MEPs trying to
support Armenian allegations against Turkey.

However, the amendment on EP`s concerns about news reports regarding
Turkish riot police`s disproportional use of force during May Day
celebrations was accepted.

The amendment also said that the changes made in article 301 of Turkish
Penal Code were not enough and urged Turkish parliament to revise
the article and completely remove other restrictive stipulations.

The report, adopted last month by the European Parliamentary Committee
on Foreign Affairs, expressed concern about the potential consequences
of the recent dissolution case filed against Turkey`s ruling Justice &
Development (AK) Party.

Another amendment to the report said the EP expected Turkish
Constitutional Court to act in accordance with the Venice Commission
guidelines and European standards on the prohibition of political
parties.

It also called on the Turkish government to respect pluralism,
secularism and democracy while carrying out reforms and to reach a
compromise with political parties and urged the political parties to
distance themselves from violence and terrorist organizations.

-THE REPORT-

The report says the parliament takes note of the process underway to
prepare a new, civilian constitution; regards it as a key opportunity
to place the protection of human rights and freedoms at the core of
the constitution and underlines the need for a broad involvement of
civil society in this process.

The report also says the parliament "welcomes the commitment of
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that 2008 is going to be the year
of reforms; urges the Turkish government to make use of its strong
parliamentary majority to resolutely pursue reforms that are crucial
for Turkey`s transformation into a modern democratic and prosperous
society."

It says "(the parliament) encourages the Turkish government to make
further systematic efforts to ensure that the democratically elected
political leadership bears full responsibility for formulation of
domestic, foreign and security policy and that the armed forces
respect this civilian responsibility; points out, in particular,
the need to establish full parliamentary oversight of military and
defence policy and all related expenditure."

-PRIORITY TO ARTICLE 301-

The report also urges the Turkish government and the parliament
to abolish immediately article 301 of the Penal Code as a symbolic
and substantive step towards full respect of freedom of expression
in the country and underlines that, once the urgently needed
abolition of article 301 has been carried out, further legislative
and implementation steps will be required in order to ensure that
Turkey fully guarantees freedom of expression and press freedom in
line with ECHR and European democratic standards.

It says the parliament encourages the Turkish authorities to resolutely
pursue investigations into the Ergenekon affair, "to fully uncover
its networks reaching into the state structures and to bring those
involved to justice."

The report welcomes the recent adoption by the Turkish Parliament
of the Law on Foundations and says "the European Commission should
analyse whether the Law addresses all shortcomings faced by non-Muslim
religious communities with regard to property management and
acquisition, including expropriated property sold to third parties."

The report also calls upon the Democratic Society Party (DTP), its
members at the parliament and mayors "to engage constructively in
the quest for a political solution to the Kurdish issue within the
democratic Turkish state."

It strongly condemns the violence perpetrated by the terrorist
organization PKK and reiterates European Parliament`s solidarity with
Turkey in its fight against terrorism. The report urges the Iraqi
government and the regional Kurdish administration not to allow Iraqi
territory to be used as a base for terrorist acts against Turkey.

The report stresses the need to arrive at a comprehensive settlement
of the Cyprus question within the UN framework, claiming that "the
withdrawal of Turkish forces would facilitate the negotiation of
a settlement."

Oomen-Ruijten`s report also calls on the European Commission and
the Turkish government to start negotiations on an agreement to ease
granting of visas to Turkish nationals .