NGOs Meet Commissioner Verheugen on Turkey

"We call upon the Turkish authorities to implement the many reforms that were passed. Implementation is key and must not surrender to bureaucratic conservatism or any other hurdle," says Ana-Maria Cabanellas, President of the IPA.

On 15 July 2004, eight international NGOs met with Enlargement Commissioner Günter Verheugen in Brussels to discuss the progress made by Turkey in the field of Human Rights.

The Commission will issue a recommendation this September on whether EU member states should start membership negotiations with Turkey in December 2004 or not.

It is indeed in December that Heads of States and Governments will decide on this. They have already indicated that they would follow the recommendation issued by the Commission.

The IPA recalled that last year 43 books were banned and 37 writers and 17 publishers were put on trial. To date in 2004, at least 15 books have been banned in Turkey.

While welcoming the legislative and constitutional changes in Turkey, the IPA expressed its three main concerns:

1. The legal impediments to the practice of the right to freedom of expression in Turkey;

2. The current tendency of Turkish Security Courts to harass writers, journalists and publishers by putting them on trial more and more often, fining them or just postponing their trials indefinitely;

3. The lack of implementation of legal reforms regarding freedom of expression.

Lars Grahn, Chairman of IPA's Freedom to Publish Committee, says,

"The six following taboos are obvious hurdles to freedom of expression and to publishing in Turkey: Position of the Military, Kurdish Question, Armenian Genocide, Kemalism, Women's Liberation and Islamic Law.

"Treating writers, journalists and publishers as potential terrorists or criminals and judging them in the same courts as drug traffickers and/or real terrorists is unacceptable." (YE)

* The IPA press statement was released on July 19, 2004