ABHAber, Belgium
EU-Turkey News Network
July 12 2006
EP postpones talks on highly-critical Turkey report
The European Parliament on Tuesday postponed debates on a draft
report entitled "Turkey’s Progress Towards Accession" which includes
a variety of criticisms of Turkey, until early September.
Debates on the report, prepared by EP Committee on Foreign Affairs
Rapporteur and MEP Camiel Eurlings, are now set for an EP session
Sept. 4 to 7.
The decision to postpone talks comes after some 400 proposals for
amendments to the draft report were submitted. Moreover at Tuesday’s
session of the EP Foreign Affairs Committee, some members stated that
translation of the amendment requests will take a long time. However
European diplomats stated that there are many conflicting views
surrounding the proposed amendments.
While Eurlings said that more debates about Turkey are necessary,
other MEPs recalled the latest developments on Cyprus as well as
Turkey’s plans to implement certain reforms on women’s rights,
obligatory religious lessons and religious minorities and requested
the inclusion of these developments in the report. Other MEPs noted
that the European Commission will also announce a progress report on
Turkey and underlined the importance of back-to-back issuing of the
two reports.
The draft report criticized a number of issues, including Cyprus, a
slowdown in the EU reform process, the situation in the southeast,
problems with religious minorities, cultural rights and
civil-military relations. It raised particular concerns about the
Semdinli incident, during which a bookshop in the southeast was
allegedly bombed by members of the security forces, and called for an
impartial and objective investigation into the incident.
Turkey’s reservations to open its airports and harbors to the Greek
Cypriots will have serious implications for the EU process and could
even bring it to a halt, warned the draft report. The highly critical
report also called on Turkey to take steps towards the recognition of
the Greek Cypriot administration during the accession process and
raises the idea of an early withdrawal of forces from the Turkish
Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). It also calls on the European
Council to renew efforts to implement trade regulations with Northern
Cyprus.
The EP report severely condemned the killing of Council of State
Judge Mustafa Yucel Ozbilgin, expressing concern over the low-level
of security offered to judges by the police despite clear and public
threats, and called on the government to rectify the situation. The
EP also condemned a resurgence of violence in the southeast by the
terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and stressed that there can
never be an excuse for violence against Turkish citizens in any part
of the country. The report also expressed solidarity with Turkey in
fighting terrorism.
On the Armenian issue, the EP took note of a Turkish proposal to set
up a bilateral committee of experts to deal with the tragic
experiences of the past and of Armenia’s position on the proposal. It
also urged the Turkish and Armenian governments to continue their
process of reconciliation leading to a mutually acceptable proposal
and asked Turkey to take the necessary steps, without any
preconditions, to establish diplomatic and good neighborly relations
with Armenia and open the land border as soon as possible.
ABHaber 12.07.2006
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
