§ Mr. CoxTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent discussions he has had with the Turkish Government on human rights; and what specific cases were discussed. [132704]
§ Mr. VazThe Foreign Secretary discussed human rights issues with the Turkish Foreign Minister, Ismail Cem, when he visited London in September 1999, and in the margins of the OSCE summit in Istanbul in November 823W 1999. Human rights have also been raised in other ministerial contacts, for example by my hon. Friend the Member for Neath (Mr. Hain) when he met the Turkish Ambassador in December 1999, and at my meeting with the Turkish Justice Minister, Mr. Sami Turk, in June this year.
There have otherwise been regular discussions with the Turkish authorities on human rights issues in contacts between officials, both bilaterally and by the EU Presidency and Commission with our support. Points raised in such discussions included our opposition to the death penalty, the imprisonment of HADEP mayors and Akin Birdal, allegations of torture, treatment of Christians in Turkey, many other individual cases and resettlement and other aspects of the Ilisu Dam project. We have also regularly discussed Turkey's proposals to meet the Copenhagen criteria for EU membership.
We will continue to make our concerns clear to the Turkish authorities.