Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-03-12-Speech-3-032"
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"en.20080312.3.3-032"2
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"I am very surprised that the situation in Turkey has not been placed at the top of this week’s agenda. It has hitherto always been stated that the process of negotiation with Turkey would take place in parallel with the progress of Turkish reforms.
Well, the reverse has proved to be the case. The reform process has almost completely ground to a standstill, but the negotiations simply go ahead. All we can tell is that Turkey is piling up the provocations. Freedom of expression is formally obstructed under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code. The Turkish Government had agreed to scrap or at the very least reform this article by the end of the year, but nothing has been done. It also laconically let it be known that there was a higher priority, namely the suppression of the ban on headscarves in universities. The Islamisation and the stealthy phasing-out of the current state apparently take precedence.
Then the Turkish Prime Minister, Mr Erdogan, went to Germany to remind the Turks living there not to adapt too well and to demand the establishment of Turkish universities in Europe. Mr Erdogan conducted himself like a victorious commander coming to inspect his troops in occupied territory.
Furthermore, Turkey has been bombing Northern Iraq for weeks. Approximately 10 000 troops have invaded the country. It is almost as if Croatia, another candidate Member State, were to attack Montenegro. Of course that would be absurd, and nobody in the European Union would accept something like that, and yet apparently Turkey can do what it wants.
My question therefore, Mr President, is how long will the European Union continue to behave like a sort of shrinking violet in the negotiations with Turkey?"@en1
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