Turkish Daily News , Turkey
Jan 15 2008
PACE president calls for reforms on free speech, minority rights
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Linden pays a farewell visit to Turkey ahead of next week’s
presidential elections at PACE when Turkey’s future judge in the
European Court of Human Rights will also be elected
ANKARA – TDN Parliament Bureau
The president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of
Europe (PACE) 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 Köksal 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 alleged genocide of the Armenians 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.
Farewell visit
In Ankara Linden met with President Abdullah Gül during a farewell
visit ahead of the presidential elections at PACE set for Jan. 21,
when Turkey’s future judge in the Strasbourg-based European Court of
Human Rights will also be elected.
Turkey’s previous list was rejected because of difference in
capacity level among the three nominees. The current list includes
Professor Ruþen Ergeç, who was previously nominated, Professor Iþýl
Karakaþ and Associate Professor Ali Ulusoy. Ergeç still stands as a
strong candidate to replace Turkey’s respected judge Rýza Türmen but
political observers say Karakaþ has also got a chance to be elected
since European circles remain warm toward female candidates in order
to foster equal representation.
Some 20 current judges of the European court including Turkey’s
Türmen will be retired in February and will be replaced by new judges
since Russian State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament,
did not approve Protocol No. 14 to the European Convention on Human
Rights, which extends the terms of the judges from six to nine years.