Erdogan: C.O.E. Parliamentary Assembly's Decision To Close Monitoring Procedure For Turkey Is A Very Important Result

ANKARA - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that the Council of Europe (COE) Parliamentary Assembly decided to close the monitoring procedure for Turkey as the country succeeded in fulfillment of Copenhagen political criteria. He added, ''it is a very important step, very important result.''
Erdogan noted that the monitoring procedure for Turkey was closed with 144 votes in the COE Parliamentary Assembly.
''It is a favorable result of efforts that have been extended so far,'' he stressed.
The COE Parliamentary Assembly voted a report and draft resolution, which were prepared by Luc Van den Brande of Belgium and Mady Delvaux-Stehres of Luxembourg to close the procedure.
The report eulogized the reform process in Turkey and made a series of recommendations to Turkey for the future.
The procedure started in 1996 with the pretext of existence of problems in democratization and continuation of human rights violations in COE founding member Turkey.
(EÖ-AÖ) 22.06.2004