ANKARA - Turkish Parliament Speaker Bulent Arinc said on Wednesday that release of the former deputies of the outlawed Democracy Party (DEP) was not direct reason of the Council of Europe (COE) Parliamentary Assembly's decision to close the monitoring procedure for Turkey.
When asked whether or not release of former deputies of DEP affected the decision of COE Parliamentary Assembly to close monitoring procedure for Turkey, Arinc said that COE Parliamentary Assembly welcomed with understanding legal decisions that were made for former deputies of DEP. Arinc stated that but the assembly had a sensitivity on the name of ''Leyla Zana'', former deputy of outlawed DEP.
Stressing that release of Zana and her friends was not direct reason of the decision of COE Parliamentary Assembly, Arinc said that reasons, which affected the decision of the assembly were steps that Turkish parliament and government took on democratization, and improvement of individual rights and freedoms.
The Council of Europe (COE) Parliamentary Assembly decided on Tuesday to close the monitoring procedure for Turkey.
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) 23.06.2004