ANKARA (CIHAN) - Turkey welcomed the decision of the European Council parliamentary assembly to remove Turkey from its human rights monitoring list.
The European Council (EC) parliamentary assembly voted yesterday to remove Turkey from the EU human rights inspection list.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey's removal from the inspection list was a very important step. "It is result of Turkey's efforts and struggle," for democracy and human rights.
A total of 141 EC parliamentarians voted in favor of removing Turkey from the inspection list. Turkey has been under inspection of by the European Council parliamentary assembly since 1996 due to its poor human right record.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Tuesday saying that the decision of the EC parliamentarians assembly to lift inspection on Turkey showed that one obstacle before Turkey's EU membership bid was removed.
The removal of Turkey from the inspection list means that Turkey is a normalized democratic country and it respects the human rights. It also means that Turkey has fulfilled the Copenhagen criteria.
Turkey is hoping to open accession talks with the EU commission in December. It has legislated numerous EU-inspired reforms in recent years, which have been praised by EU leaders.