Brussels, 21/04/2011 (Agence Europe) - Turkmenistan has an “abysmal” human rights record and the EU should engage with it only if it makes concrete progress in this area. So said the European Parliament (EP) foreign affairs committee on Wednesday 20 April, ahead of the visit to Turkmenistan by an EP delegation next week to ascertain whether Parliament should give its agreement, in June, to an EU Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA).
Farid Tukhbatullin, who leads the Vienna-based Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights (TIHR) and Vyacheslav Mamedov, leader of the Netherlands-based Turkmen Civil Democratic Union, called for the release of all political prisoners in Turkmenistan and for 15,000 people to be taken off the blacklist which prevents thousands of people from entering or leaving the country. Alluding to so-called “political stability” in Turkmenistan, Tukhbatullin said that, if the government “is hoping to preserve the current situation, indignation will boil over and explode as it recently has in other countries”. Veronika Szente Goldston, from Human Rights Watch, said that the EP should request a detailed report from the European External Action Service on the impact of the Interim Trade Agreement (ITA) on the human rights situation in Turkmenistan.
When asked by Norica Nicolai (ALDE, Romania), rapporteur on the PCA with Turkmenistan, whether a boycott against Turkmenistan could lead it to comply with its obligations, Mamedov replied that any expansion of EU co-operation with Turkmenistan “must be based on preconditions”. He added that “only afterwards can we decide if Turkmenistan is prepared to take the democratic path”, adding that “it is a dead-end policy to try to arrive at democracy via trade and economic engagement”.
Baastian Belder (EFD, Netherlands) voiced concern about attacks on freedom of religion. “Citizens of non-registered religions are falling victims to the Turkmen Criminal Code”, he said. Tukhbatullin confirmed that religious organisations are being banned and even the registered ones are being harassed.
EP human rights sub-committee chairwoman Heidi Hautala (Greens/EFA, Finland) referred to the foreign affairs committee resolution on the conclusion of the PCA (passed on 26 January 2011), in which the Parliament called for a system to be established to monitor Turkmenistan's human rights record. Disappointed by the External Action Service's reply that it would not implement such a system because it would supposedly “distort the balance of the EU institutions”, Hautala argued that the proposed agreement with Turkmenistan “is a test-case of how the European Parliament can give a serious scrutiny” to an international agreement, adding that it creates a precedent for how the Parliament will monitor future partnership and cooperation agreements.
The Parliament will vote on whether to approve the PCA with Turkmenistan in June. (L.C./transl.rt)