FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE EU TURKEY AND THE KURDS

FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE EU, TURKEY AND THE KURDS
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constituting the Turkish Republic; NGO’s and civil society groups specifically
should be encouraged and supported to contribute to such a platform;
37) The Conference supports the undertakings by the EU that reform in the
area of Turkey’s fundamental rights, democracy and the rule of law must be
strengthened in the course of accession negotiations and welcomes the commitment
by the EU Commission to continue to monitor the reform process;
38) The Conference reiterates the view expressed in the 2004 - 2007 Conferences,
that Turkey has not yet fulfilled the political elements of the Copenhagen
Criteria, and reiterates that its support for the accession process is dependent
upon the institutions of the EU robustly enforcing accession standards. It
further underlines that there can be no further compromises on membership
criteria akin to the EU decision to allow Turkey access to the negotiating
table for ‘sufficiently’ fulfilling the Copenhagen Criteria;
39) Recalling last year’s conference resolution number 10, the Conference calls
upon Turkey to ratify the European Framework Convention on the Protection
of Minorities as well as other UN Instruments concerning minorities
and to respect the existing cultural and minority rights of all groups; and
calls on the EU to apply pressure on the Government of Turkey as a potential
member of the EU to ratify said Framework;
40) The Conference calls on the EU to recognize that torture is still an administrative
practice of the state rather than an isolated practice and forms part of
the systematic policy of the state in Turkey, and calls upon Turkey to put a
halt to all such practices and ensure the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman
or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The Conference calls on Turkey to
fully cooperate with and implement CPT recommendations with regards to
the conditions of detention of Abdullah Öcalan, who has been held for more
than nine years as the sole inmate of the prison on the island of Imralı, and
recent allegations of torture of detained persons by law enforcement officials
and prison officers, as well as the situation of foreign nationals detained under
aliens legislation. The Conference condemns these activities and calls for
an immediate end to such actions. The Conference calls on the EU to exert
pressure on Turkey to abstain from the use of torture as a tool of the state and
fully cooperate with the CPT;
41) Recalling Articles 10, and 14, and Article 2 of the first Protocol of the European
Convention on Human Rights and Article 8 of the European Charter
for Regional or Minority languages, and the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary
Assembly’s resolution 1519 of October 2006 on the cultural situation of
the Kurds, the Conference reiterates its call to the State of Turkey and the