Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-02-27-Speech-3-131"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20020227.8.3-131"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, the Christian Democrats in the Group of the European People's Party and European Democrats are able fully to support what has been said by the Council and the Commission.
Turkey’s constitutional court wishes to declare a further political party illegal. Over the last 40 years, as many as 23 political parties have been declared illegal in Turkey. These have been parties with religious, regional, cultural and ethnic bases which have been considered to go against the Kemalist structure of the unitary state.
Allow me to draw a clear comparison. If we had had such a constitution among the various Member States of the European Union, a large number of parties would have been declared illegal including, for example, my own party, the Swedish Christian Democratic Party, and its sister parties throughout the EU.
I promise that we in the European Parliament will show no lack of vigour, energy and persistence in monitoring this judicial process in Turkey. Within the framework of an ad hoc delegation, we intend to act in such a way as to protect democratic rights, the multiparty system and, of course, the rights of the Kurdish minority too in Turkey.
Kemal Atatürk, who died more than 60 years ago, founded a unitary Turkish state. It is time for a debate among the Turkish people about whether this constitution and this unitary state fulfil the requirements of modern society and pluralistic democracy. My view is that the Kemalist unitary state is based more upon power, threats, compulsion and authoritarian demands for loyalty than upon winning over people’s hearts and inspiring an inner loyalty, healthy affection and patriotism in relation to their own country. The time should be past when a constitutional court declares one political party after another illegal. Moreover, these are large political parties more often than not.
Turkey has not signed the Council of Europe’s convention governing the rights of minorities and proceeds ultimately on the basis of Kemal Atatürk’s constitution harking back to the 1920s and 1930s. I wonder if Turkey is not in actual fact scoring an own goal by not opening itself to the outside world and not acting differently towards its minorities. Only if it changes in these ways can people’s hearts be won over in Turkey and the rest of Europe."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples