|
|
|
news
headlines
Kurds aiming for final agreement next week Ecevit says Turkey prepares its defenses Trouble brews between Kurds/Islamic rebels in Iraq KDP and PUK Set to Seal Agreement on Implementing Four-Year-Old Peace Deal Kurds tell of Iraqi war ignored by outside world Iraq's Kurds Fear Results of U.S. Attack on Saddam Former US diplomat visits Iraqi Kurdistan Turkey's Kurdish party sees no ban before polls Al-Qaeda Surrogate Islamic Group in Southern Kurdistan Destroys Sufi Shrines Two Kurdish guerrillas killed in Southern Kurdistan Police Smash Immigrant Smuggling Ring Washington will not lay the groundwork for a "provisional government" Iraqi Kurds Fear Islamic Militant Group Attack by Islamist Radicals in Kurdistan Brings Kurdish Factions Closer Sweden Arrests Kurd in Immigrant "Honor Killing" Turkey set for November polls, EU reforms in doubt
|
Jailed Kurdish politician urges EU to open doors to TurkeyANKARA, Sept 6 (AFP) A jailed former Kurdish parliamentarian has urged senior European Union officials to invite Turkey to start membership talks, lending support to the Ankara government. "The uncertainty over the negotiations date is strengthening opponents. Uncertainty means darkness and opponents benefit from darkness," Leyla Zana, who has been in prison since 1994 for supporting Kurdish separatist rebels, said in a letter. "That is why... the announcement of a negotiation calendar for Turkey at the (EU's Copenhagen) summit in December will irreversibly open Turkey's road" towards integration with the Union, she wrote. "Otherwise, it could become impossible to put into practice the recent legal arrangements and to speed up the pace of democratization," she added in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by AFP and confirmed by Zana's lawyer Yusuf Alatas. The parliament last month lifted one-time bans such as broadcasts and courses in the Kurdish language and abolished the death penalty in peace time as part of democracy reforms aimed at bringing Turkey closer to EU norms. Zana, a laureate of the EU Parliament's human rights award in 1995, said the "historical" measures had sealed "the brotherhood of Turks and Kurds." She sent the letter on August 29 to Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, whose country currently chairs the EU, the European Parliament's president Pat Cox, European Commission President Romano Prodi and Enlargement Commissioner Guenter Verheugen. Zana, a former parliament member, has been in jail in Ankara since 1994, serving a 15-year sentence for separatist activities in support of armed Kurdish rebels. Turkey, the laggard among the 13 EU hopefuls, says its recent democratization drive has made it eligible for membership negotiations and wants the EU to set a date for the opening of the talks by year-end. The EU, however,
says the passage of the reforms does not guarantee the opening of accession
talks and that legal changes must be implemented in practice.
|
