"Turkey and EU speak 'different languages' on minorities, says minister 04/11/2004
Turkey, which the European Union says must improve its treatment of its 25-million-strong Kurdish population before it can join the bloc, and the EU speak 'different languages' on minorities, the country's justice minister said Thursday. 'We must not engage in a debate which would call into question the unity of Turkey,' Cemil Cicek told a meeting of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), Anatolia news agency reported. Such a debate would only benefit Kurdish extremists who seek division of the country, added Cicek, who is also the government's spokesman. He said each country had different methods for meeting EU criteria, particularly concerning the protection of the rights of minorities. The Turkish definition of a minority is based on religion and not on ethnicity. Turkey had long resisted demands for more Kurdish freedoms. It feared that such rights could fuel nationalist sentiment among the minority and constitute a reward for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), whose 15-year campaign for Kurdish self-rule in southeastern Turkey has claimed more than 36,000 lives. But Turkey has in recent years undertaken several major reforms to broaden the cultural freedoms of the Kurdish minority as part of its campaign for EU membership."
EUbusiness - Turkey and EU speak 'different languages' on minorities, says minister
