Gül says terrorists ‘exploit’ European democracy standards

PanARMENIAN.Net - Standards of democracy, human rights, and freedom of expression are very high in Europe, which is sometimes exploited by terror groups, Turkish President Abdullah Gül said during his visit to Sweden, according to Hurriyet Daily News.

“Unfortunately, terrorists at times abuse these standards. The ones who become entangled in terror and violence join such organizations and … exploit the superiority of Europe’s democracy as a point of weakness,” Gül said at a joint press conference with Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, after the Turkish and Swedish foreign ministers signed a Turkey-Sweden Strategic Partnership document in Stockholm.

For his part, Reinfeldt said Sweden supports Turkey’s EU membership and reforms taken to join the bloc, but also criticized the state of media freedom in the prospective member state. “Part of the Constitution needs to clearly address the issue of the freedom of the media,” Reinfeldt said, adding that many journalists were being detained under the country’s vaguely defined terrorism laws.

“We hope that a full judicial package adopted by the government will lead to a more narrow definition of terrorism,” he said.