PACE President calls on Turkey for reforms on freedom of speech, minority rights

PanARMENIAN.Net - The president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Rene van der Linden yesterday urged Turkey to press ahead with reforms and pay more attention to freedom of expression and minority rights two areas that await further improvement if the country is to proceed on its thorny road toward the European Union.



I am one of the biggest supporters of Turkey's EU membership as long as Turkey sticks to its commitments, Rene van der Linden told reporters following a meeting with Parliament Speaker Koksal Toptan. He warned Turkey to pay much more attention to the much-criticized article 301 of the Turkish penal code that makes it a crime to insult Turkish identity.



The contentious article has landed a string of intellectuals in court due to denigrating "Turkishness" and mostly for comments on the Armenian Genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Empire.



Linden also urged the Turkish government and Parliament to improve minority rights. I am sure that you, the new Parliament and the new government will pay attention to these issues and contribute to their solution, he told Toptan, the Turkish Daily News reports.