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Turkey's Delayed Legal Reform Harms EU Membership Plans
ANKARA, Aug 25 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Turkey's deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz has warned of a possible breakdown in the country's plans for European Union membership if the government delays adoption of a constitutional reform package, news agencies reported.
"If we do not respect our timetable with the European Union, our relations can be threatened with a break off," he told Turkish news channel CNN-TURK on Friday.
Yilmaz, the Turkish minister responsible for relations with the 15-nation bloc, said the current constitution, drawn up under the influence of Turkey's powerful military in 1982 a year after it had carried out a coup d'etat, was a "very serious obstacle" in Turkish ties with the EU and needed to be modified, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Turkey became a candidate for EU membership in December 1999, but was told it had to improve its record on human rights and democracy before being admitted to membership talks along with a dozen other eastern European and Mediterranean countries.
The government has convened parliament in mid-September, earlier than the regular end of its summer recess, in order to pass the reform package.
The aim is to adopt the reforms before the European Commission - the EU's executive arm - wraps up in November an annual report on Turkey's progress towards membership.
The 37-article draft includes major reforms such as the abolition of the death penalty except for times of war and crimes of terrorism, a provision designed to exclude condemned Kurdish chief Abdullah Ocalan.
It also envisages the lifting of a ban on using "forbidden languages" in the expression and dissemination of thought, which could allow the free use of Kurdish in the media.
The package calls for tighter criteria to ban political parties and the inclusion of more civilian members in the National Security Council.
Other proposals aim to improve freedom of expression and expand workers' rights to unionize.
Turkey has criticized the European Parliament last September for linking European Union aid to Turkish treatment of the Kurds, the BBC online service reported.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry said such requests were based on misinformation and misjudgment, and were not constructive.
Earlier this month Yilmaz and the army clashed, after Yilmaz charged that Turkey's national security concept, whose main architect is the military, was blocking efforts to improve Turkey's crippled democracy.
The army hit back in a harsh statement, which reflected its worries that extended freedoms could play into the hands of separatist-minded Kurds and other movements, seen as principal threats to the military's control of power in the mainly Muslim nation.
On Friday, Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said on CNN Turk "the army is not meddling" in the reforms.
Turkey first applied for EU membership in 1985.
According to the Turkish Foreign Ministry website, the modern Turkish Republic founded under the leadership of Atatürk underwent, in a short period of time, sweeping reforms based on the contemporary, secular system of values in all spheres of social life.
These reforms enabled the Turkish nation to participate in the system of values "shared by the Europeans." The Turkish Government regards E.U. membership as a milestone confirming the founding philosophy of Atatürk's vision for the Republic.
However, Turkey's majority Muslim population remains under stringent watch by the strictly secular government, whose crackdowns on expressions of Islamic faith have weakened the hold that Turkey has on developing a truly democratic state.
Abuses cited by human rights groups, specifically regarding the ill-treatment and even torture of detained prisoners, have also proved an obstacle to Turkey's democratization and progress towards EU membership.
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