Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-05-21-Speech-3-074"
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"en.20080521.4.3-074"2
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"I also want to pay tribute to the rapporteur and the way in which she has drawn up this report. The report clearly shows the direction that Parliament wants to go in, which is to negotiate on membership of the European Union and nothing else.
2008 was announced as the year of reforms in Turkey. Of course we support that ambition, but we are waiting to see how internal developments in Turkey will turn out. Mr Swoboda has said enough about that. If it goes wrong, we shall have to deal with a Turkey that cannot really act.
Talking of reforms, I should also like to draw attention to Article 301 of the Penal Code, which is used to restrict freedom of expression in Turkey in a number of ways. The government has announced that it wishes to amend this article. We believe that this is a step forward, but what we would like most and what we think is the best solution is for the article to be abolished for good, along with other restrictive provisions, to put an end to a practice that, unfortunately, still persists, namely the misuse of these articles in order to restrict freedom of expression.
Secondly, I should like to join with Mr Lagendijk in saying that we were also outraged at the way in which the police intervened at the 1 May demonstration in Istanbul. You will realise that, for us as social democrats, for whom 1 May is an important day, this was something very disturbing. We hope that it will never happen again and appeal to the authorities to ensure that it does not.
Finally, a remark on the Kurdish question. We want the political debate in Turkey actually to take place and we want a political solution to be sought through decentralisation, but also, for example, by promoting the use of Kurdish in general. I think that is an important point to be stressed again today.
Finally, I also want to draw attention to a point that we have discussed repeatedly, the expression of support for the initiative by the Spanish Prime Minister, Mr Zapatero, and his Turkish counterpart, Mr Erdoğan, on what they call the Alliance of Civilizations. We hope that Parliament will eventually support our amendments on that today."@en1
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