Turkey And The European Union (No. 3)

EDM number 595 in 1994-95, proposed by Alan Simpson on 10/02/1995.

That this House notes that two million people have been forcibly evicted from their homes and 2,000 villages destroyed by the security forces in south east Turkey, that 103 intellectuals and serving prison sentences for offences arising out of their writings or speeches, that 15 journalists, an MP and numerous lawyers, human rights activists and political leaders have been assassinated by death squads and that Turkey is the only country in the world to have been the subject of an adverse report under Article 20 of the Convention Against Torture, and has the largest entry of any country in the report of the UN Rapporteur on Torture; further notes that the newspapers Ozgur Gundem and Ozgur Ulke have been closed down after suffering harassment, confiscation, bombing of their premises, arrests and torture of their employees, and that any discussion on constitutional reform is prohibited by Article 25 of the Penal Code, which provides for the death penalty to be inflicted on those who undermine the indivisible integrity of the Turkish State, republic and people; and urges Her Majesty's Government not to accede to any request by Turkey for closer relationship of any kind with the European Union.

This motion has been signed by a total of 30 MPs, 3 of these signatures have been withdrawn.