§ Lord Moynihanasked Her Majesty's Government:
What effect they consider the changes proposed to Turkey's constitution by Mr Recep Tayyip Erdogan will have on Turkey's candidacy for European Union membership. [HL348]
§ Baroness AmosThe new Turkish Government have announced a large number of reforms, political and economic. Some may require amendment of the constitution, others new legislation, and yet others better regulation and implementation by the authorities. All of these, in so far as they help meet the Copenhagen political criteria, bring closer the day when Turkey will be able to open accession 51WA negotiations with the EU. As a strong supporter of Turkey's EU candidature, the British Government welcome them all. But we also admire the Turkish Government's assertion that they want these reforms for their citizens, in any case, regardless of their impact on Turkey's EU candidature.
§ Lord Hyltonasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will discuss with the Government of Turkey, both directly and through multilateral channels, the following issues:
- (a) the clearance of landmines, which are reported to have caused 838 deaths and 937 injuries between 1990 and 2002;
- (b) ratification by Turkey of the Ottawa Convention on Landmines; and
- (c) the refusal of the Turkish Registry of Births to allow parents to give Kurdish names to their children. [HL410]
§ Baroness Amos(a) The UK welcomes the Turkish clearance of a reported 10,638 landmines from various border regions by the end of 2001. Turkey has signed several protocols on landmine clearance with neighbours, including Bulgaria and Georgia, and has stated that it has not laid anti-personnel mines on Turkish territory since December 1997.
(b) The UK encourages Turkey and other nations to accede to the Ottawa Convention on anti-personnel landmines and the Convention on Conventional Weapons Amended Protocol II that regulates the use of other types of landmines. The UK Government lobbied Turkey in January 1999, as part of a global exercise in support of the Ottawa Convention. Since then, Turkey has supported the UN resolution calling for universal accession to the convention. The Turkish Parliament has taken steps to do so itself; the Turkish parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee approved the principle of accession to the Ottawa Convention on 9 May 2002. We expect Turkey to do so soon.
(c) The situation on Kurdish names is evolving. The Appeal Court ruled in 2000 that parents could register their children with Kurdish names. Some parents doing so were challenged but the courts found in favour of the parents. The new government in Turkey have shown, by existing and planned legislation and by their heavy emphasis on human rights, that they intend to abolish such restrictions on individual liberties.