ANKARA - Justice Minister Cemil Cicek said on Wednesday that the European Union (EU) was for the benefit of Turkey and Turkey had to take place in that world.
Giving information about the Sixth EU Adjustment Package during talks in the Justice Commission, Cicek said, ''staying outside the union is not the end of the world but we have to determine well our political latitudes and longitudes after that.''
Cicek noted that the arrangements foresaw amendments in ten laws and they were an important step in the EU process.
They brought the mentioned arrangements onto agenda of the parliament to increase the standards of democracy, widen fundamental rights and liberties and take them under guarantee, and to adjust with the EU acquis, Cicek stated.
Cicek said that the bill had an important place for the progress report expected to be announced in September or October.
The EU issue was not an issue concerning only the government, Cicek pointed out.
Cicek said that it was a national issue and a state policy with 40 years of past and added, ''even, we can consider it as the last point reached in Turkey's Westernization aim and demand since 1839.''
There was a very important date in front of Turkey, Cicek noted.
Cicek emphasized that a negotiation date might or might not be taken in December 2004.
''If Turkey is to start a negotiation process and if it is to fulfil legal conditions of being a European country, there is a very important turning point in front of Turkey,'' Cicek said.
Cicek noted that Turkey had to fulfil its commitments regarding those criteria which were demanded from all candidate countries to start that turning point.
When mentioning social developments, two intermingled circles were mentioned, Cicek said.
Cicek stated that the small circle was the understanding of a society.
The understanding of Turkish society was the issues stated in the Article 2 of the Constitution, the amendment of which could not even been proposed, Cicek said.
Cicek noted that other articles could be amended in accordance with time and conditions and that what the EU wanted was those issues in the second circle.
The EU wanted fundamental rights and liberties to be taken under guarantee, Cicek pointed out.
Cicek said that the aim of the bills was to widen the diameter of the second circle and to meet requirements of political criteria.
If those criteria were not met till December 2004, they feared that Turkey could miss the opportunity again like 1980s, Cicek noted.
Cicek stated that it would not be the end of the world, but emphasized that Turkey had to well-calculate pluses and minuses of being outside the Union.
''Turkey naturally faces difficulties when making these changes. All of us has hesitations but I believe that keeping these hesitations as questions in our minds for a long time don't help solution of our problems,'' Cicek said.
Cicek noted that the society had gained important advantages with foundation of the Republic and there had also been hesitations and problems when those changes were being made.
Recalling that Turkey had recorded progress after those changes although problems were faced when economic, social and cultural changes were being made, Cicek gave amendment to Law on Protection of Value of Turkish Lira, abolition of Articles 141, 142 and 163 of Turkish Penal Code (TCK), and private television channels as an example.
Cicek said 1982 Constitution stemmed from understanding taking bans as basis and freedoms as exception because of the difficulties which had been experienced before 1980's. Cicek said this could be logical if conditions of the time are taken into consideration.
Cicek said, ''however, there is a fact which the whole world experienced since 1990. That is: it is not possible to protect the values which you want to protect with bans. Soviet bloc is the most clear example of this. This bloc had arranged the bans in details, and linked them to heavy penalties. Yet those bans were not sufficient to protect what they wanted to protect. Today, all the countries are in an effort to enter the EU.''
Cicek said Turkey should take place within the EU and should fulfill those arrangements, stating that it should not miss this opportunity. ''In case Turkey misses this opportunity, this is not the end of world, but we should determine very well where we will be after that.''
Pointing out that Turkey have 13-15 months period, Cicek said, ''time restricts us. There is noting else but time. Whenever we bring the draft onto agenda, they say 'pressure of this, concern of that, date of this, timetable of that'. The only thing which we are interested in is December 2004.''
Cicek said, ''as the government, our timetable is to fulfill almost all the legal arrangements this year, at least the sine qua non arrangements within this period. There should not be a deficiency stemming from Turkey in the progress report expected to be published in October. In 2004, all of us should intensify on to what extend the laws are being implemented. We prepared such a timetable. We think that passage of the 6th Adjustment package at the end of June would provide an important contribution. We will bring the other arrangements onto the agenda of the parliament soon.''

SIXTH ADJUSTMENT PACKAGE APPROVED
The sixth European Union (EU) adjustment package was approved in the Parliamentary Justice Commission started on Wednesday.
The Sixth European Union adjustment package adopted in the Parliamentary Justice Commission re-defines the crime of terrorism with an article added to the bill.
With a motion submitted by the members of the Republican People's Party (CHP) and supported by the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) members, the first article of the Anti-Terrorism Law entitled ''the definition of terrorism'' is changed as ''definition of terrorism and organization'' and re-arranges the crime of terrorism.
In accordance with this, the sentence in the current regulation saying ''using terrorism or one of methods like pressure, force and violence, frightening, daunting, or threat'' is changed as ''using terrorism, force and violence; or one of methods of threat, pressure, frightening or daunting.'' Thus, it is said that pressure, frightening, daunting or threat can be a crime of terrorism only if force or violence is used.
Also, the expression ''...are every kind of actions'' is changed as ''...are actions which constitute every kind of crime.''
The new motion also changes definition of ''organization.'' In the current law, it is said, ''an organization is considered as a terrorist organization with unification of two or more people for the same goal.'' In the new bill, it is said, ''an organization can be considered as a terrorist organization if two or more people unite to commit the crime of terrorism written in the first paragraph of the law.''

-BROADCASTING IN ELECTION PERIOD-
The bill on amendment to several laws which is named as the Sixth EU Adjustment Package adds some new expressions to the Law on Basic Provisions of Elections and Electoral Rolls.
Under the bill, private radio and television channels will be subject to the Law on Turkish Radio and Television in their broadcastings from the beginning of the election date to the end of the election date.
The Higher Election Board (YSK) will be authorized to set the principles of broadcasting of private radio and television channels in this period.
The bill says, ''YSK is authorized to monitor, control and evaluate whether or not the broadcastings of private radio and television channels operating throughout the country are in compliance with the above mentioned principles while the town election boards are authorized to control the broadcastings of the private radio and television channels operating outside this scope.''
Objections to the decisions of the town election boards can be made to provincial election boards within 24 hours. The decision of the provincial election board is final.

-BROADCASTING CRIMES-
Under the bill, the YSK warns the private radio and television channels broadcasting throughout the country which makes broadcasting contrary to the principles set by the YSK and to the article 55/A of this law and asks the channel to apologize on the air. The town election board is authorized for the same thing regarding the private radio and television channels broadcasting in a local area.
The article says, ''in case this demand is not fulfilled or the channel acts contrary, the YSK or the town election board stops the broadcasting between one or 12 times. The YSK decides to stop the broadcasting of the private radio and televisions operating throughout the country between five and 15 days in case of the continuation of the contrary act while the town election board decides to stop the broadcasting of the local television or radio channel between three to seven days. The highest civilian authorities immediately put these decisions into practice.''
The bill also foresees the television and radio channels to pay fine changing between 10 and 85 billion Turkish liras (TL) in case the channels are asked to stop the broadcasting under the provision of the first paragraph of the article. The fine for the local private radio and television channels will be between 350 million and 4 billion TL.
In case the act is repeated, the fine will be three-folds.
The bill says that observers of the international and regional organizations to which Turkey is a member of and the observers of the countries member to these organizations, and the observers of the international non-governmental organizations which are considered convenient by the government, can only monitor the elections in Turkey.

(BRC-AY-AÖ) 18.06.2003