Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-09-16-Speech-4-131"
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"en.19990916.9.4-131"2
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"Mr President, in the earthquake in Turkey, the devastating tremors within the earth brought to light the devastating situation within society. More than 15,000 people had to perish just because unscrupulous building firms, shamelessly making money out of shoddy construction, are protected by people in politics and administration up to the highest levels of government. Thus the earthquake often affected the poorest of the poor. While desperate people were digging their relatives out of the rubble with their bare hands, the state apparatus showed that it was first and foremost concerned with itself.
In the Kurdish province there are 500,000 militiamen and soldiers under arms in a war, which the other side ended long ago. Meanwhile the sight of a soldier in the earthquake area with a shovel in his hand is a rare one. Ankara did not just leave people to their own devices but also confiscated aid funds and hindered the work of foreign NGOs. This culminated in the Grey Wolves, the Nationalist Action Party, demanding of the Health Minister that Turkey should reject Greek blood donations for the victims. We cannot accept such contempt for people without protest. But the fact that both the Greek and the Turkish people decided to offer each other mutual help is a positive sign. And so, after the earthquakes, both the Turkish people helped the Greeks and the Greek people helped the Turks.
Please do not misunderstand me, but the industrialised nations of the West should not take the moral high ground where Turkey is concerned. They should rather at last admit their share of responsibility for the political and economic situation on the Bosphorus. Only then is the way clear for serious democratic changes in Turkey and for appropriate aid which is actually delivered to the victims. The European Union has spent thousands of Euros to assist the victims in Turkey. I therefore propose that we send a delegation to Turkey and to Greece to check whether the money has been used for the victims, whether the poorest people, the ones who really need the money, have actually received it."@en1
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