Commissioners speak out on Turkey

Wednesday, 8 September 2004 12:00 AM

The European Union's enlargement commissioner has urged Turkey to do more to advance the cultural rights of its Kurdish minority.

On a visit to the Diyarbakir region, Gunter Verheugen said Turkey had "taken steps" to start Kurdish language education but that was "only the beginning".

But Mr Verheugen welcomed Ankara's move to abolish the death penalty, improve its human rights record and implement other judicial and constitutional reforms.

Mr Verheugen is on a four-day fact-finding mission to Turkey's south eastern Kurdish area.

The EU Commission will publish a report in October on Turkey's EU membership.

The Muslim state is bidding to join the EU's 25-nation bloc.

Mr Verheugen called on Turkey to repatriate Kurds back to village homes.

In the 1980s and 1990s government troops rounded on rebels from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), now known as KONGRA-GEL.

It is estimated some 300,000 people were displaced because of the fighting.

European leaders decide in December whether to begin talks on a time-scale for Turkey's accession to the EU.

Separately, Frits Bolkestein, the single market commissioner, caused uproar yesterday by suggesting Europe's Christian civilisation could be overrun by Islam.

Mr Bolkestein said the EU may "implode" if 70 million Turkish Muslims were allowed to join the bloc.

In a speech at Leiden University, Mr Bolkestein compared Europe to the fate of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire's incursions into the Ottoman Balkans.

Critics of Turkey's accession also claim the country's low average income levels may cause finances problems for the newly expanded bloc.

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