Brussels, 28/06/2001 (Agence Europe) - During a press conference, the president of the European Parliament delegation, German Green member elected in France Daniel Cohn-Bendit, felt that the two-day meeting of the joint EU/Turkey parliamentary committee "showed the normality of our relations". He pointed out that the economic crisis in Turkey was the subject of discussion, even if the participants devoted a large part of their debate to the national programme for adopting the acquis communautaire recently adopted by Turkey. Mr Cohn-Bendit explained that one of the main weaknesses of this national programme is the lack of a timetable for implementation, mainly concerning the political criteria of Copenhagen. Not without judging as "contradictory" the recent ban by the Virtue Party, which has been condemned by nearly all the EP political groups, Mr Cohn-Bendit insisted on the situation in prisons. In this respect, his Turkish counterpart, Kürsat Eser, said that there is talk about the situation in the prisons in his country but that he has already had the opportunity to visit prisons in the EU and that they did not meet the criteria set for Turkey either. Noting that, according to the Turkish authorities, major constitutional reform should come about in September, Mr Cohn-Bendit insisted on the need to stop considering expression of opinion as an offence, with, as a corollary, the amnesty of thousands of detainees, including Leyla Zana, winner of the Sakharov Prize awarded by the European Parliament. Mr Ezer recalled that Turkey has already granted amnesty to 2,500 prisoners. He added that "those who are still in prison have given direct support to terrorism".
"Cyprus will in coming months be the main problem in the EU's relations with Turkey", stressed Mr Cohn-Bendit, who felt that a "solution is absolutely necessary before any ratification of enlargement". He pointed out that he proposed the organisation to Parliament of a major hearing on the Cypriot issue (see yesterday's EUROPE also, p.4). During the meeting of the joint committee, attended by Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem, Mr Cohn-Bendit had, in order to illustrate the attitude of the protagonists of the Cypriot question, referred to the film "Rebel without a Cause" (Ed.: a film by Nicholas Ray dating from 1955, with James Dean), where two actors play a game of who will be the last to jump from the vehicle heading straight for the ravine. He trusted that this hearing would make it possible to find a solution allowing everyone to jump from the car before it falls into the ravine. In answer to a question by British Liberal Democrat Andrew Duff on the rule provided by the 1960 agreement banning Cyprus from becoming a member of an international organisation of which Greece and Turkey would not be members, Mr Cem said that unilateral accession would force both the Turkish and the Cypriot parties to "react vehemently", while acknowledging that this would be harmful for everyone and perhaps even more harmful for Turkey than the others.