Fuente: © Council of Europe
http://www.coe.int/

''The European aspiration of the Turkish people must not be deceived'' says President of PACE addressing the Turkish Parliament

/noticias.info/ The President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), René van der Linden, who is on an official visit to Turkey from 9 to 13 November, today addressed the Turkish Parliament. The first foreign guest to speak before the Grand National Assembly of Turkey this year, René van der Linden stressed the importance of Turkey for the Council of Europe and for European and world affairs in general.

In his speech, the President of PACE pointed in particular to issues such as the major political and legislative reforms accomplished by Turkey. The results achieved made it possible for Turkey to start accession negotiations with the EU. "Turkey needs and merits the prospect of full EU membership, just as the EU needs and merits Turkey" he said, also stressing that promises must be kept by the EU in order to dismiss any suspicion of double standards vis-à-vis Turkey. A coordinated strategic plan for a dialogue involving both EU and Turkey must be developed to overcome misunderstandings and prejudices. A better integration of Turkish communities living in Western Europe, meaning in particular enhanced participation in public and private life, will no doubt contribute to this aim. In France, we are currently witnessing extremes to which loss of trust in society and the lack of perspectives can lead.

But the process of reforms is not yet complete. The President encouraged Turkey to make further progress rapidly. When the Parliamentary Assembly rightly decided last year to end the monitoring process concerning Turkey, it also decided to begin post monitoring dialogue on the basis of twelve points. These included providing further guaranties for the freedom of expression, promotion of cultural and linguistic diversity in particular with respect to minorities, establishment of the ombudsman institution, lowering the electoral threshold and speeding-up Turkey's accession to those key legal instruments of the Council of Europe to which it has not yet adhered. In this connection, he called for the judicial procedure against Mr Orhan Pamuk to be halted.

Also mentioning the vital need for an open dialogue between religions and civilisations, René van der Linden stressed the role Turkey can play not only as a bridge to the Muslim world, but also as a major actor and stability factor in highly important geopolitical issues in its vicinity: South Caucasus, in particular the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Iraq and the Middle-East, and promotion of democracy in Central Asia.

In this context, the President also referred to the crucial role Turkey has played in the efforts to find a solution to the Cyprus problem. Praising the strong support of Turkish Cypriots for the Annan Plan, President van der Linden reminded his audience that the Parliamentary Assembly, believing that the international isolation of the Turkish Cypriots must cease, was the only European institution to associate, on a permanent basis, representatives of this community to its work. Stressing that in his capacity as President of the PACE he would do his utmost to encourage the international community to be more open and constructive with the Turkish Cypriot community, he noted that the recognition of the state of Cyprus is a necessary part of the process of Turkey's accession to the EU.

Emphasising the meed for strict respect of religious freedom through secularity, ''religion in every country should be free of state influence as the state should be free of religious influence'' he said. The President also encouraged his Turkish colleagues to translate further into reality the reforms of Ataturk that gave women equal rights and opportunities, including political rights. notas_de_prensa_archivo