Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-01-20-Speech-3-354"
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"en.20100120.18.3-354"2
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"Madam President, the promise of membership in the European Union was, for a long time, a driving force for democratic change in Turkey. However, after 2005, Turkish support for accession to the Union fell from 70% to barely 42%. In this situation, therefore, the further democratisation of Turkey does, indeed, require better cooperation with the European Union.
Much has been achieved in Turkey – my fellow Members have spoken about this here – and that deserves our recognition, but there are still areas which we should examine with particular care. There is the question, which has already been mentioned, of freedom of the press and the question of the freedom of electronic media. The OSCE reports, for example, that Turkey is blocking 3 700 Internet sites. Another important matter is the ability of women to participate in public life. The Turkish constitution bans women in traditional headscarves from entering university, while such scarves are worn by as many as 70% of women. This battle between secularism and democracy is a real challenge in Turkey.
I would also like to mention the Kurds, and namely to recognise them as a national minority. The solutions proposed by the Turkish Government are not satisfactory. It is true they have started to recognise the Kurds’ language, but the Turkish constitution still contains Article 42, which bans the teaching of Kurdish as a mother tongue in educational establishments.
It is important to develop cooperation continuously, both with the parliament and the government, but also to support non-governmental organisations, social initiatives and local government partnerships in Turkey. We must increase cooperation between institutions, but we should remember that, especially when we speak about the development of democracy, it is actually relations between ordinary citizens which change the world."@en1
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