Turkey entering EU suffers negative report
The European Parliament adopted today a report which is critical of the slow reform process, religious discrimination and free speech and the role of the army in Turkey.
The report adopted by 429 votes in favor 71 against with 125 abstentions reiterates the EP"s position that membership negotiations with Turkey are an "open-ended process, and do not lead a priori and automatically to accession".
The EP report comes a day after the EU announced that Bulgaria and Romania will join the European bloc on January 1, 2007.
MEPs called on Turkey to recognize the Republic of Cyprus, withdraw its forces from the island and lift its embargo on Cypriot vessels and aircraft.
The report warns Turkey that a lack of progress in implementing the Ankara protocol "will have serious implications for the negotiation process, and could even bring it to a halt".
The EP, however, rejected a paragraph in the report that called the acknowledgement of the "Armenian genocide" a "precondition" for Turkey"s EU accession.
The report noted that, although the recognition of the Armenian genocide as such is formally not one of the criteria for EU membership, it is indispensable for a country on the road to membership to come to terms with and recognize its past.
MEPs urge Turkey to take the necessary steps, without any preconditions, to establish diplomatic and good neighbourly relations with Armenia, to withdraw the economic blockade and to open the land border at an early date.
MEPs urged Turkish authorities to "fulfill their commitments regarding freedom of religion", since they noted an "absence of progress" in this area.
It notes that an important discussion on headscarves is going on within Turkish society; points out that there are no European rules in this matter, but expresses its hope that a compromise will be found in Turkey on the wearing of headscarves by students at universities.
The House welcomed "the opening of broadcasting in Kurdish" while nevertheless noting the continued intimidation of civil society representatives in the southeast of the country.
The report "strongly condemns the resurgence of terrorist violence on the part of the PKK" and "calls on the PKK to declare and respect an immediate ceasefire".
It also pleads for "a democratic solution to the Kurdish issue".
The Parliament also expressed its "serious concern" about the "non-respect for women"s rights" and the high role of the military in Turkish public life.