11/03/2005 (Agence Europe) - CSU elected member Ingo Friedrich states in a press release that an increasing number of voices within the European Parliament are being raised to state that the start of negotiations for Turkey's accession to the EU should be postponed (scheduled for 3 October). In his view, during the brutal repression of the peaceful women's demonstration last week in Istanbul, the Turkish authorities “dropped their mask”. Mr Friedrich finds the “terse” reaction to European protests by the Turkish Foreign Minister Gül “strange”. Mr Gül said that the European Union would do better to respect its own obligations, the MEP protests, pointing out that: “no-one is forcing Turkey to join the EU and Europe does not have to justify itself for defending human rights”.