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MEP WARNS TURKEY TIME RUNNING OUT
BBC NEWS
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/e urope/7239492.stm
2008/02/11 17:00:34 GMT
A senior Euro MP has said that the EU is losing patience with Turkey
over its promise to change its controversial law restricting freedom
of speech.
Joost Lagendijk, joint head of the parliament's Turkey committee, was
speaking as a court heard the case of murdered journalist Hrant Dink.
Mr Dink had been convicted under a law which bans "insulting
Turkishness".
The MEP said Turkey's leaders had repeatedly promised to overturn
the law and it was now time for them to act.
They've opened a Pandora's box and nobody is quite sure where it will
end Joost Lagendijk Co-chairman, European Parliament's Turkey committee
The EU opened talks on Turkish membership in 2005 but there have been
repeated concerns about Ankara's willingness to make the necessary
changes to its laws.
"We have to take ourselves seriously," Mr Lagendijk told the BBC
News website.
"We're preparing a report for the European Parliament which will
be voted on in April and if nothing has moved by then on freedom of
expression, the report will be negative."
Article 301 of Turkey's penal code was used against Hrant Dink after
he described the mass killings of Armenians in 1915-1917 as genocide.
A 17-year-old has confessed to his killing and another 18 people
have gone on trial as associates. But there are claims that the real
figures who planned the killing are not on trial.
Two days after Ankara relaxed the law banning Islamic headscarves
in universities, Mr Lagendijk said he feared a public outcry over
the decision would be used by the government as an argument against
pushing through further reform.
"They've opened a Pandora's box and nobody is quite sure where it
will end," he said.
BBC NEWS
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/e urope/7239492.stm
2008/02/11 17:00:34 GMT
A senior Euro MP has said that the EU is losing patience with Turkey
over its promise to change its controversial law restricting freedom
of speech.
Joost Lagendijk, joint head of the parliament's Turkey committee, was
speaking as a court heard the case of murdered journalist Hrant Dink.
Mr Dink had been convicted under a law which bans "insulting
Turkishness".
The MEP said Turkey's leaders had repeatedly promised to overturn
the law and it was now time for them to act.
They've opened a Pandora's box and nobody is quite sure where it will
end Joost Lagendijk Co-chairman, European Parliament's Turkey committee
The EU opened talks on Turkish membership in 2005 but there have been
repeated concerns about Ankara's willingness to make the necessary
changes to its laws.
"We have to take ourselves seriously," Mr Lagendijk told the BBC
News website.
"We're preparing a report for the European Parliament which will
be voted on in April and if nothing has moved by then on freedom of
expression, the report will be negative."
Article 301 of Turkey's penal code was used against Hrant Dink after
he described the mass killings of Armenians in 1915-1917 as genocide.
A 17-year-old has confessed to his killing and another 18 people
have gone on trial as associates. But there are claims that the real
figures who planned the killing are not on trial.
Two days after Ankara relaxed the law banning Islamic headscarves
in universities, Mr Lagendijk said he feared a public outcry over
the decision would be used by the government as an argument against
pushing through further reform.
"They've opened a Pandora's box and nobody is quite sure where it
will end," he said.