Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-05-16-Speech-3-157"
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"en.20010516.5.3-157"2
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"Mr President, allow me to start by making a basic observation. Prison reforms are the hardest reforms of all to implement, not just in countries like Turkey, but in our own countries as well. We all know that. Prisons are always the Achilles heel, the weak point of a democracy. Even in the highly developed democracies of the European Union, the situation in the prisons is far from rosy, let alone democratic. Applied to Turkey, this means that the situation in the prisons in a country which, culturally speaking, still has to find its democratic feet, is a mirror image of this contradiction in terms. That is why I think it is very important to establish one thing: I do not know if it was the Council or the Commission which said that it called on Turkey to be generous in its application of the law. I think that, legally, this is the wrong approach. The law is one thing and generosity is another. To my mind, what is contradictory about reform in Turkey is that, basically, it leaves reform up to the prison administration, which then has the opportunity to apply it as it sees fit.
With the situation as it is, this does nothing to inspire confidence in prisoners with painful experiences of the prison administration and the prison guards. That is the problem. How to create trust? Which his why I think – and we established this on our trip – that we need to find a solution quickly because the prisoners have changed their standpoint. They are not making so many incredibly complicated demands. Isolation cells to be opened at once, new arrangements to be made for visits by relatives and lawyers at once, medical attention from doctors of their choice, these are more or less their immediate demands in order to call off the hunger strike.
That is why we call on Turkey, first, to be generous in implementing what is yet to come and to start by opening cells and doors so that the hunger strike can end. Secondly, to instigate a dialogue with the prisoners so as to clarify exactly what they want. It is important to recognise that. Thirdly – and essentially in my view – Turkey must make it clear that it is ready in the dialogue to acknowledge these people as people.
On the other hand, we say to the organisations organising this strike that the decision to end the strike must be taken by the prisoners, not by some party leader or other. That is our demand because it is these people who are risking their lives, not the leaders in Brussels, who still have plenty to eat and drink."@en1
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