Kurdistan Observer

Turkey Seen Losing EU Reform Drive, German Party Leader

Reporter.gr, Greece

14 April 2006 - The leader of Germany's opposition Greens party said here that Turkey appeared to have lost its appetite for reforms required to join the European Union. "The dynamic approach that existed in the beginning does not seem to be there anymore," Claudia Roth, an advocate of Turkey's membership bid, was quoted as saying at meetings with Turkish legislators in parliament.

She said she was particularly concerned over the situation in the country's mainly Kurdish southeast, which has been rattled by deadly urban riots and escalating clashes between the army and separatist Kurdish rebels in the countryside since late March.
"It's a fact that there is no other alternative than silencing the arms," Roth said. "A civilian political perspective is needed to resolve the Kurdish question... The current situation in Turkey is worrying us."

Roth said she would travel to Diyarbakir, the central city of the southeast, on Friday.

Turkey opened membership talks with the EU in October after undertaking a series of far-reaching reforms to strengthen democracy and enhance human rights.

But the government has been accused since of failing to maintain the pace of reform, turning instead to a domestic agenda ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections in 2007.

Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul rejected the criticism Wednesday as he announced a package of new reforms, aimed mainly at further limiting the powers of the military and expanding the rights of non-Muslim minorities.