BERLIN - Claudia Roth, the chairwoman of the German government`s human rights board and the Turkish-German Parliamentary Friendship Group, has said that resolution of the Cyprus question was very important for Turkey.
Roth had a meeting on Tuesday in Berlin with Parliamentary Commission for Adjustment Into European Union (EU) members headed by former Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis.
Speaking at the meeting, Roth said that end of human rights violations and removal of regional economic differences were important for Turkey`s EU membership.
Although it was not among the Copenhagen criteria, resolution of the Cyprus question was very important and if it was not resolved, Turkey would have difficulties because those who were against Turkey`s membership might show it as a pretext, she said.
Noting that she completely supported the German government`s attitude toward opening of membership negotiations with Turkey in case of fulfillment of the Copenhagen criteria, Roth said that also German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer believed that Turkey might play a key role in securing peace and fight against terrorism.
Stressing that as the Green Party, they attributed great importance especially to human rights, Roth said that she would have meetings in Ankara, Diyarbakir, Mardin and Istanbul during her one-week visit to Turkey in May.
Recalling that the Turkish press had harshly criticized her during some periods, Roth said that criticism did not mean you were always against something and her party believed in principle of equality while other parties had concerns whether a Muslim country could change them. Noting that there had been lobbying efforts in the German assembly to bring so-called Armenian genocide onto the agenda, Roth said she could not know how much those efforts would be effective but Armenian issue might come to the agenda of the assembly.
Defending that release of Leyla Zana would be positive for Turkey, Roth added that Zana was well-known in international area.
(MS-AÖ) 09.03.2004