Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-03-28-Speech-3-117-000"
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"en.20120328.18.3-117-000"2
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"Madam President, it is true that the debate so far has moved me too to alter what I wanted to say slightly and to refer to Mr Van Orden’s deep regret about the isolation of the Turkish Cypriots. I should like to say to him that the trouble I have gone to for the Turkish Cypriots exceed the trouble he has gone to for the Turkish Cypriots ten thousand times over and that their isolation, which is a fact, is due to the 40 000 Turkish troops there, who are occupying this part of Cyprus and who, merely by their presence, are imposing their will on the Turkish Cypriot population.
It does not take much effort to understand that: forty thousand troops among 100 000 Turkish Cypriots means one soldier outside every house. Just think about it: how can that be right? We are in favour of eliminating the isolation of the Turkish Cypriots, which is due to the Turkish occupation.
If Mr Van Orden had come along this morning to the hearing organised by the Confederal Group of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left, which was attended by dozens of Turkish Cypriots and representatives of large trade unions and Turkish Cypriot parties, he would have heard the anguished cries of Turkish Cypriots complaining that they number 100 000 among 500 000 Turks. How can this community declare its faith and will when it comes to developments in Cyprus? I do not think that it would take much argument to make someone understand that the Turkish Cypriot community is held captive by the occupation, far more captive, if you will, than the Greek Cypriot community.
That brings me to the report on which, there can be no doubt, Mrs Oomen-Ruijten has worked extremely hard. However, ultimately we cannot but find that this is a political balancing exercise which, in the final analysis, merely highlights the reality that exists in the eyes of Parliament. We have to go beyond wishful thinking when it comes to the problems of the Kurdish population in Turkey, of whom there are 10 million. Why does Turkey not give the rights you demand for the Turkish Cypriots – and I am the first to demand them – to the Turks also, Mr Van Orden? Why does it not apply them to its own people? You weep tears over abuse of the human rights of the Turkish Cypriots – and rightly so – but they are due to the fact that Turkey is not prepared to demonstrate that will. Turkey’s refusal to have contacts with the Presidency of the Republic of Cyprus in a few months’ time is not only an insult to Cyprus; it is an insult to us to, to our institutions, to the European Union itself and its
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I should like to close by saying that we are in favour of the accession of Turkey; we demonstrated as much with our vote in favour of the opening of negotiations on the accession of Turkey. It was a very critical moment and Cyprus gave the go-ahead. However, Turkey needs to honour its undertakings, like every other country."@en1
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"(The speaker agreed to reply to a ‘blue card’ question (Rule 149(8))"1
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