Turkey/Human Rights: Old propaganda RFE: Turkey Moves To End Torture

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Europe: Turkey Moves To End Torture In Effort To Join EU

By Joel Blocker

Prague, 12 March 1997 (RFE/RL) - Strongly supported by the United
States, Turkey has begun a new effort to establish its credentials as
a candidate for full membership in the European Union. Not for the
first time, Ankara's effort centers on improving the country's human
rights record, a long-time target of Western criticism and a major
hurdle for Turkey's early admission into the 15-nation EU.

On Monday, Deputy Premier -- and Foreign Minister -- Tansu Ciller
called a press conference to declare that her Islamic-led government
would end what she acknowledged was the widespread practice of torture
in the country. "Whenever torture is mentioned anywhere in the world,
Turkey's name is invoked," Ciller said.  "This is a shame we cannot
bear."

Ciller pledged that torture "will be wiped out from our nation." She
said that governors and police chiefs of every Turkish province would
now be held responsible for stopping torture. She even promised to
make unannounced personal visits to police stations to check whether
the new torture regulations were being implemented.

Ciller's remarks amounted to an unusually pointed avowal of what
Western human-rights organizations and other critics have repeatedly
contended: that torture is systematic in -- and, many say, endemic to
-- Turkey.  For years, Turkish high officials have insisted this was
not the case, claiming that those responsible for what they said were
isolated, sporadic torture incidents were always punished.

In a follow-up statement yesterday, Ciller's Foreign Ministry
announced a broader series of measures designed to improve the
country's human rights image. The measures focus not only on
preventing torture of those held in police custody, but also reducing
legally sanctioned detention periods, intensifying the search for
missing people and increasing freedom of expression. The Ministry said
that its goal was "to drop the issue of human rights both from
Turkey's agenda and from the Turkish-EU relationship before the end of
this year."

That, even many Turkish officials would admit, will take some
doing. But remarks made yesterday by State Department spokesman
Nicholas Burns, and clearly not merely coincidental with the issuance
of the Foreign Ministry statement, show that the United States intends
to back to the hilt Turkey's campaign to refurbish its image in the
West. Burns hailed Ankara's new human rights reform package and said
EU members should give Turkey what he called "high marks" for its
efforts.

Burns also said that U.S. ambassadors in the capitals of the EU's 15
member states had been instructed to reaffirm to their host
governments what he called Washington's "very strong views" on future
Turkish membership in the Union. He then stated those views in the
strong, staccato phrases that have quickly become the hallmark of his
new boss, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright: "Turkey is a European
country," Burns declared. "Turkey has its roots in Europe. Turkey's
security is based in Europe. And Turkey's future...ought to be
grounded in Europe."

The trouble is, as Burns acknowledged, the United States does not have
a vote in the EU and doesn't "always see eye-to-eye with (EU)
governments" on Turkish issues. In fact, both the unusually strong
U.S. language and Ankara's new image-polishing campaign came as a
reaction to perhaps the sharpest blow to Turkish hopes for early EU
admission ever administered by West European politicians. At a meeting
in Brussels early last week, leaders of Europe's Center-Right parties
said unanimously that they did not consider Turkey a serious EU
applicant.

The leaders subscribing to that view, most of them Christian
Democrats, included German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, Italian Premier
Romano Prodi and Spanish Premier Jose Maria Aznar. Former Belgian
Premier Wilfred Maartens spelled out their reasons for opposing
Turkish entry in terms almost diametrically opposed to those used by
Burns.

"Turkey is not a candidate...either short-term or long," said
Maartens, who now heads the Center-Right European People's Party in
the EU's Parliament. "We want the closest cooperation possible (with
Turkey), but we are creating a European Union. That is a
E-u-r-o-p-e-a-n project." In other words -- words that Maartens
diplomatically did not use -- Moslem Turkey can never be a part of
Judeo-Christian Europe.

The "civilization gap," as some analysts have dubbed it, between
Turkey and the EU has long been the fundamental -- if seldom admitted
-- reason why Turkey, granted associate status 34 years ago, has never
been able to attain full EU membership. Only in recent months have EU
leaders been willing to acknowledge that reality and break the taboo
about discussing it in public. Five weeks ago, Foreign Minister Hans
van Mierlo of the Netherlands, which currently holds the EU's
revolving presidency, told a European Parliament Committee that it was
"time for us in Europe to be honest" about Turkey.

"There is a problem with a large Moslem state," said van Mierlo, who
does not share that view. "Do we want it in Europe? It is an unspoken
question."

Thanks to van Mierlo the question has now finally been uttered, and
the candidly expressed views of EU Center-Right leaders last week owe
much to his breaking of the taboo. But with offended Turkish officials
threatening to block the eastward expansion of NATO (in which Ankara
is a full member) if Turkey is not assured of eventual EU membership,
the question is now far more complicated. That's why the United
States, pushing hard for early NATO enlargement, has now decided to go
all-out in pressuring EU members to re-establish Turkey's candidature.

It's far from certain that the United States and Turkey will
succeed. For one thing, heavy public U.S. pressure on West European
governments often back-fires because EU officials do want to be
perceived as bowing to U.S. demands. What's more, centuries-old
history, with its evidence of a deep civilization gap, is clearly not
on Turkey's side. And more recent history has amply demonstrated that
Turkey's promises to improve its human rights record are seldom
fulfilled.

The last evidence of that failing came in the year following the EU's
signing of a customs-union accord with Ankara in 1995. Angered by
Turkey's reneging on its pledges to implement Western human-rights
criteria, the European Parliament six months ago cut off all
customs-union funding to Turkey indefinitely, in effect making the
accord a dead letter.

The customs union was meant to bring Turkey into closer association
with the EU -- without granting it full membership. If that strategy
did not work, ask some analysts, how after so many failed previous
attempts can anything short of a miracle bring about early Turkish
entry into the EU?

-- 
Press Agency Ozgurluk
For justice, democracy and human rights in Turkey and Kurdistan!
Website: http://www.ozgurluk.org                          
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