PRIME MINISTER Tayyip Erdogan said his government has no plans to change a controversial article of Turkey’s penal code, despite a European Union warning that failure to do so could harm Ankara’s entry bid.
Article 301 makes it a crime to insult Turkish identity and has been used by nationalist lawyers to prosecute a number of journalists, scholars and writers, including this year’s Nobel literature winner Orhan Pamuk. The EU says it unfairly restricts freedom of expression and must be changed.
“On this matter (Article 301), there is no work in hand,” yesterday’s newspapers quoted Erdogan as saying.
“We are not a country that is closed to the world. Let them (the EU) come up with an idea (for changing 301) and we will consider it,” he said.
Erdogan, speaking to reporters at a reception on Sunday evening, said it was for the courts to interpret Turkish laws.
The European Commission is expected to criticise Turkey’s reform record in an annual progress report due to be published on November 8, especially its failure to change article 301.
On Cyprus, the other most sensitive issue dogging Turkey-EU relations, Erdogan also struck a cool note, saying proposals drawn up by current EU president Finland aimed at breaking a diplomatic deadlock were not “reasonable”.
“But we will assess them,” Erdogan added.
The EU has warned that membership talks could be badly damaged if Ankara continues its refusal to open its ports and airports to traffic from EU member Cyprus.
Turkey does not recognise the internationally accepted Greek Cypriot government, backing instead breakaway Turkish Cypriots in the north of the ethnically partitioned island.
Turkey’s EU chief negotiator Ali Babacan, who is also economy minister, blamed certain EU member states on Monday for the difficulties between the bloc and Ankara.
“There is no problem in Ankara or in Brussels (home of the European Commission). The problem is in some (EU) capitals. Some countries are not ready for Turkey’s EU membership,” Babacan told Turkish businessmen.
He did not name the member states, but France and Austria are especially cool on the prospect of Turkey, a large, relatively poor, Muslim country joining the EU. (R)
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