RICE: US FOLLOWING CLOSURE CASE, VOTERS’ VOICES MUST BE HEARD
Today’s Zaman
April 17 2008
Turkey
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice commended Turkey’s government
for seeking to revise a law that limits free speech on Tuesday,
but also urged it to protect the rights of religious minorities.
In remarks made at the American Turkish Council (ATC) conference
held in Washington, Rice encouraged predominantly Muslim Turkey,
a key US and NATO ally, to remain true to democratic, secular
principles. "We commend Prime Minister [Recep Tayyip] Erdoðan
for stating recently that Parliament will amend Article 301 of the
Turkish Penal Code [TCK], which criminalizes insulting Turkishness,"
she said. Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) last
week submitted to Parliament a long-awaited revision to the law, which
has been used to prosecute dozens of writers, including assassinated
Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink and Nobel Prize-winning writer
Orhan Pamuk. "Expressing one’s belief is not an insult to the state,
it is one of the highest forms of citizenship," Rice said. Turkish
government officials acknowledge that the law has embarrassed Turkey
abroad, but reform has been delayed several times because of opposition
from nationalists.
Rice said Turkey should also respect the rights of religious groups,
such as its Greek Orthodox community, by allowing a seminary shut
down in the 1970s to reopen.
Rice made no direct reference to a closure case against the AK Party
in her speech. Responding to a question on the matter, she said she
was closely following the case.
"It is a matter, obviously, for Turks to decide. We believe and
hope that this will be decided within Turkey’s secular democratic
context and by its secular democratic principles. But I think it is
in everybody’s interest that it be done in this way, that the voters
will be heard. Turkey has democratic institutions, and it is our
great hope that it will be resolved in that context," Rice said.
Turkey has been locked in a political crisis since a chief prosecutor
in March asked the Constitutional Court to shut down the AK Party
and ban its leaders from politics.
————————————— —————————————–
US was ‘disappointed, frankly’ with Greek Cypriot ‘no’ in 2004
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has pledged to throw US
diplomacy behind new reunification talks between the divided Greek and
Turkish communities of Cyprus as it did back in 2004, when a UN-led
reunification plan drafted by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan
failed after the Greek Cypriot side rejected it in a referendum.
"Ankara’s openness to renewed efforts on the divided island of Cyprus
to reach an agreement on bi-zonal, bi-communal federation is also
a key part of the process of Europe’s construction," Rice said on
Tuesday in a keynote speech delivered at the ongoing 27th annual
American-Turkish Council (ATC) conference in Washington.
When asked about the new process on the divided island, which was
kicked off at a landmark meeting between the Greek and Turkish Cypriot
leaders on March 21, Rice first of all said that "there is a new
momentum building on the island, and the US very much supports efforts
to use this new momentum to perhaps finally come to a solution."
"We were disappointed, frankly, a couple of years ago when the efforts
of Kofi Annan, we thought, were very close to producing a result
and, frankly, should have produced a result. And we made it known
that we felt the Turkish government had supported that solution,
and we therefore acted to make some small steps to help to end the
isolation of the Turkish Cypriots," Rice added, in apparent reference
to the fact that both the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC)
and Ankara at the time backed the UN-led reunification plan, which
was simultaneously voted on by the two sides of the divided island in
2004. The plan, however, became null and void after the Greek Cypriots
rejected it shortly before entering the EU as official representatives
of the entire island.
"It’s a more hopeful period and a more hopeful sign now. But
ultimately, some difficult choices are going to have to be made…
And so we will be very supportive of the UN process there," Rice
added. Ankara Today’s Zaman
–Boundary_(ID_8vnDtewFiqDl73ij6/zBPw)–