Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-09-26-Speech-2-205"
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"en.20060926.24.2-205"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the Confederal Group of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left has voted in favour of opening negotiations with Turkey, but we believe that those negotiations must centre on respect for human rights and democracy, and that such respect must be indissolubly linked to the political and diplomatic solution to the Kurdish question.
Last week, I took part in the Subcommittee on Human Rights’ visit to Turkey, and I have come back with a very different impression to the one I had hoped for. In particular, we found a tragic situation in Turkish Kurdistan, that is, it was a completely militarised zone. It is one thing for us all to condemn terrorism, but it is quite something else to regard an entire population as terrorists, to imprison minors merely for giving the V-sign, to persist with the logic of torture and to dismiss those judges who, for example, investigate police officers held responsible for an attack.
We, as Parliament, must support the DTP’s call for a ceasefire and we must call on the PKK to respond positively to that appeal. We must call on the Turkish Government to begin immediate talks with the DTP with the aim of reaching a political solution, as there is no other possible alternative.
However, the problems do not just concern the Kurdish issue: we were all delighted with the solution reached regarding Elif Shafak, just as we were previously with the one regarding Orhan Pamuk, but there is a danger that this is window dressing just for the West: there are at least another 80 writers and journalists who are standing trial under Article 301.
At the same time, the Turkish Parliament has approved the anti-terrorism law in its original wording, despite opposition not only from Europe, but also from the United Nations. Furthermore, we have been able to ascertain that, in Hakkari Province, which is also in the Kurdish area, 7 000 out of the 250 000 people living there are village guardians, and so we have a situation where a police force – the disbandment of which the European Union has been requesting for some time – is directly answerable to the government.
The commitment that we are asking Parliament, the Commission and the Council to make is to continue down the road of holding talks with Turkey, but with a focus on human rights and not just on ideological debates or economic interests. We believe that the future can bring a Europe that is multi-ethnic and multi-faith, but there must always be respect for everyone’s human rights."@en1
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