HUMAN RIGHTS AND TURKEY'S APPLICATION FOR EU MEMBERSHIP

EDM number 266 in 1999-00, proposed by John Austin on 13/01/2000.

That this House notes that the leaders of Turkey's governing coalition have agreed to put the proposed execution of Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan on hold until the European Court of Human Rights has issued a ruling on the case, thereby avoiding a damaging dispute with the European Union; welcomes the PKK'S cessation of its armed struggle and proposals for a peace process; believes this provides an opportunity for dialogue between the Turkish government and the Kurdish community to resolve the long-running dispute and denial of basic human rights to Kurds in Turkey; regrets that despite the positive attitude of the PKK, the Turkish government's harassment of Kurds continues; notes that teachers continue to be prosecuted for teaching the Kurdish language and that many offices of the political party, HADEP, have been raided, as well as the offices of the trade union confederation KESK, the Dicle Women's Cultural Centre and the newspapers Ozgur Bakis and Yeni Evrensel; regrets that staff of the newspapers and HADEP have been detained together with the President of HADEP for Diyarbakir province; welcomes the call by the former Head of the CIA (Middle East Department) for the US administration to encourage the Turkish Government to give civil rights to the Kurdish people in Turkey; and similarly calls on Her Majesty's Government to urge the Turkish Prime Minister to adopt the path of peace and reconciliation by entering into immediate discussions with leaders of the Kurdish community with a view to establishing full civil and human rights as a pre-condition of further consideration of Turkey's candidature for EU membership.

This motion has been signed by a total of 43 MPs, 1 of these signatures have been withdrawn.