Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-04-06-Speech-4-132"
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"en.20060406.23.4-132"2
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"Mr President, on behalf of the Confederal Group of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left, and in particular of my colleague Mr Agnoletto, I would like to express my horror at the violent clashes in South-Eastern Turkey. For over a week, we have been seeing horrifying pictures, and getting horrifying reports, from a country with which the EU commenced accession negotiations in October 2005, to which, at that time, my group colleagues and I consented. Although, since commencing accession talks with the EU, the Turkish Government has initiated a reform process, it is not one that will be sufficient to resolve the country’s social and political problems and conflicts.
Where these are concerned, there is one thing that should be clear to Turkey and to all of us, and that is that Turkey’s democratic deficits were and are closely tied up with the Kurdish question. For as long as Turkey tries to resolve this problem by military means, suppressing the civilian population and suppressing the free expression of opinions and ideas, there will be no peace in the land and hence no basis for a democratic state. The chasm running through its society must not be allowed to become even deeper, to the point of becoming unbridgeable.
The Turkish Head of State, Mr Erdogan, has described the murders of women and children as necessary interventions to deal with the instruments of terrorism. To date, 15 people have lost their lives, including three children, the youngest of whom was aged only three. Of the 278 persons detained in Diyarbakir, 91 are under the age of 18. If the Turkish security forces continue to shoot at civilians in Diyarbakir, Batman, Mardin and in many other Kurdish cities, and if the death toll rises still higher, then this chasm will become wider and the prospect of a peaceful solution more distant.
It is now high time for the Commission and the Council to use all the means at their disposal to bring pressure on Turkey to end the violence. The possibility needs to be discussed of the accession negotiations being suspended if the Turkish Government and the Turkish army continue to disregard democratic principles and violate human rights. I call for an
delegation to be sent to Turkey to get to the bottom of what is going on there. I appeal to all those involved in the conflict to cease forthwith from violence, and I call on the Turkish Government to accept the Kurds’ lawfully elected representatives as negotiating partners and to drop the latest charges against them.
It cannot – it must not – be tolerated any longer that 20 million Kurds should be denied their political and cultural rights and a say in how their society is shaped."@en1
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