Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-05-16-Speech-3-160"

Predicate	Value (sorted: default)
rdf:type	lpv_eu:Speech2
dcterms:Date	"2001-05-16"^^xsd:date2
dcterms:Is Part Of	lp_eu:Situation of Turkish prisoners2
dcterms:Language	"nl"^^xsd:language2
lpv:document identification number	"en.20010516.5.3-160"2
lpv:hasSubsequent	lp_eu:2001-05-16-Speech-3-1612
lpv:speaker	lp:Hanja Maij-weggen2
lpv:spokenAs	member_of_the_bureau; EPP-ED (1999-10-12--2002-03-07)3 substitute; Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy (1999-07-21--2002-01-14)3 member; Members from the European Parliament to the Joint Parliamentary Assembly of the Agreement between the African, Caribbean and Pacific States and the European Union (ACP-EU) (1999-09-14--2002-01-14)3 member; AFCO (1999-07-21--2002-01-14)3 unknown; Christen Democratisch Appèl (1999-07-20--2003-09-30)3 substitute; Committee on Women's Rights and Equal Opportunities (1999-07-21--2002-01-14)3
lpv:translated text	"Mr President, my contribution to the debate concerns the Christian groups in Turkey which are punished disproportionately severely and are detained in Turkish jails precisely because of their ethnic origin and their faith. There they experience many difficulties. They are badly treated, not only by the management of the prisons, but also by their fellow-prisoners and are scarcely given any protection. Turkey has some 62 million inhabitants, 99% of whom are Muslims and less than half a per cent Christian. The largest group of Christians are citizens belonging to the Armenian Orthodox Church, the Syrian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church. Then in Western Turkey there are the Greek Orthodox Christians. And although the Turkish constitution respects freedom of religion, courses run by the Armenian and Greek Orthodox churches have been closed on a massive scale, as have the courses of the Syrian Orthodox Church. The Armenian Christian community particularly is constantly subject to new attacks. Not so long ago, a Christian bookshop in Eastern Turkey was besieged by armed soldiers, as a result of which one person was killed and 26 wounded. The only crime was the selling of Bibles. According to the spokesman of the Armenian patriarch in the last few years 40 plots of land belonging to the Christian Armenian church have been confiscated by the Turkish state. Anyone protesting is imprisoned and as a non-Muslim treated badly in the prisons. The Syrian Orthodox Church is treated even more harshly and as a result of the intimidation more than 100 000 Syrian Orthodox citizens have left Southern Turkey, some of them to Western Europe. In the province for which I am politically responsible, there are 9 000 Syrian Orthodox Christians and they have lost over 800 villages in Southern Turkey. Those people who have stayed are intimidated, imprisoned and badly treated. I am not an opponent of Turkey’s accession into the European Union, but I must say that if this mistreatment of Christians in Turkey continues, I may yet come out against Turkey’s membership."@en1

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