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PRESS RELEASE<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n For immediate release<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Monday 8 December 2008<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Contact : Vart\u00e9nie ECHO<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Tel. \/ Fax. : +32 (0) 2 732 70 27<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n TURKEY<\/span><\/strong> IN <\/span><\/strong>EUROPE<\/span><\/strong>, IS IT THE END?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n – the draft report presented Tuesday in the European Parliament seems to definitely abandon the prospect of <\/span><\/em><\/strong>Turkey<\/span><\/em><\/strong>\u2019s progress as well as its accession perspective<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n – December 2009 set as a deadline date<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n The Member of the European Parliament <\/span>Ria Oomen-Ruijten<\/span> (European Popular Party, <\/span>Conservative<\/span>, <\/span>Netherlands<\/span>) presented on Tuesday the draft version of her 2008 report on <\/span>Turkey<\/span> in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament. Significantly, this presentation occurred late in front of a sparse assembly of <\/span>Turkey<\/span>\u2019s supportive MEPs and of Anatolian journalists.<\/span><\/p>\n From a general perspective, the draft resolution impresses through the resigned dissatisfaction it expresses: \u201cconcerns\u201d and \u201cregrets\u201d are the main message delivered to <\/span>Ankara<\/span> while accession prospect is even no more mentioned, but to recall that it is subordinated to the \u201cfull compliance with all the <\/span>Copenhagen<\/span> criteria and EU integration capacity\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n On the other hand, the report recalls its \u201cconcern to see in <\/span>Turkey<\/span>, for the third consecutive year, a continuous slowdown of the reform process\u201d despite the strong mandate of the AKP government. It regrets too that the EC-Turkey Association Agreement and the Additional Protocol \u2013 which would be considered by Brussels as an implicit recognition of Cyprus by Turkey \u2013 \u201chave not yet been implemented fully by the Turkish government\u201d and it recalls that the non-fulfilment by Ankara of its commitment \u201cby December 2009 will further seriously affect the process of negotiations\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe are pleased to note the new tone of this report, compared to the previous year, which is now pointing out <\/span>Turkey<\/span>\u2019s shortcomings rather than excusing them. Facing the countless failed pledges of <\/span>Ankara<\/span>, this report gives ground to the credibility of the EU political approach\u201d stated <\/span>Laurent Leylekian<\/span>, executive director of the European Armenian Federation.<\/span><\/p>\n About Human Rights and freedom of speech issues, the report regrets that \u201cfreedom of expression and freedom of the press are still not fully protected in <\/span>Turkey<\/span>\u201d, that the amendment to Article 301 of the Penal Code was not sufficient, as people continue to be prosecuted\u201d and it is now calling for the repeal of this article. It regrets also \u201cthe frequent website bans, the extent of which draws <\/span>Turkey<\/span> away from standards of a democratic, pluralistic society\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n About minorities, the draft report expresses its concerns \u201cabout continuing hostility and violence\u201d that they endure and about the fact that \u201c<\/span>Turkey<\/span> has made no progress on ensuring cultural diversity and promoting respect for, and protection of, minorities\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThese actual facts are very important to remind us, especially now, as Turkey is currently threatening even Europeans in Europe, especially those who dare to mention the Kurdish issue or the Armenian genocide \u2013 for instance columnists Alberto Rosselli, Dogan \u00d6zg\u00fcden or professor Ronald M\u00f6nsch\u201d commented the director of the European Armenian Federation.<\/span><\/p>\n About the various aspects of the Armenian issue, Mrs Oomen-Ruijten report \u201cWelcomes the visit of President G\u00fcl to <\/span>Armenia<\/span> in September 2008 following an invitation from President Sarkisian, and hopes that it will indeed foster a climate favourable to the normalisation of relations between their countries\u201d. The paragraph also \u201ccalls on the Turkish government to re-open its border with <\/span>Armenia<\/span> and to restore full economic and political relations with <\/span>Armenia<\/span>\u201d. Lastly, Mrs Oomen-Ruijten restates her motto, calling \u201conce again on the Turkish and Armenian governments to start a process of reconciliation, in respect of the present and the past, allowing for a frank and open discussion of past events; and calls on the Commission to facilitate this reconciliation process\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThis time again, Mrs Oomen-Ruijten keeps on to equalise victims and their butchers while genocide is an imprescriptible crime against Humanity that cannot be reduced to bilateral relations between two States\u201d declared <\/span>Laurent Leylekian<\/span>. \u201cWe regret this outmoded attitude through which Turkey is encouraged to keep on its denial policy and through which she put in jeopardy Turkish intellectuals who are now less afraid to talk about the Armenian Genocide as such than some MEPs\u201d he concluded.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The European Armenian Federation is the biggest and most influential Armenian grassroots organisation in Europe<\/em><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 1 EUROPEAN ARMENIAN FEDERATION For Justice & Democracy Avenue de la Renaissance 10 B-1000 Bruxelles Tel\/ Fax: +32 2 732 70 27\/26 Website\u00a0:Eafjd l PRESS RELEASE For immediate release Monday 8 December 2008 Contact : Vart\u00e9nie ECHO Tel. \/ Fax. : +32 (0) 2 732 70 27 TURKEY IN EUROPE, IS IT THE END? – […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":671544,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-armenian-question"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nEuropean Armenian Federation
for Justice & Democracy
Avenue de la Renaissance 10
Brussels, 1000<\/span><\/p>\n