DIYARBAKIR - ''Democracy and human rights in Turkey should be provided with gender equality,'' European Union (EU) Commissioner for Enlargement Guenter Verheugen said on Tuesday.
Verheugen, who is currently in southeastern city of Diyarbakir, visited KA-MER (women center).
Stating that KA-MER had made important studies to defend women's rights, Verheugen said, ''democracy cannot be realized without gender equality.''
KA-MER Chairwoman Nebahat Akkoc in her part said Turkey made important steps on the way to the EU, stressing that, ''Turkey deserves to be a full member of the EU.'' She said Verheugen's visit to KA-MER shows the support of him to women.
Verheugen, who also visited Diyarbakir Bar Chairman Sezgin Tanrikulu, said legal issues and others pertaining to supremacy of law constituted the focal point of EU's priorities for Turkey.
''Copenhagen criteria are defined very clearly. The criteria contains full respect to democracy, supremacy of law, human rights and protection of minorities. As you see two of the four criteria are related to your studies,'' Verheugen said.
Verheugen asked Tanrikulu how they assess the implementation of the reforms, and asked the question ''have the political and legal reforms positively affected living conditions of the citizens?''.
Tanrikulu said the EU process which has started in 1999, added momentum to issues such as human rights and democracy. He said 45 separate articles of law related to essential laws were amended during this process.
''As the Bar, we assist our citizens to become conscious about implementation of human rights and democracy. We published legal assistance brochures in Turkish and Kurdish on several issues and distributed them to people. EU process accelerated judicial reforms. We want this process to continue,'' Tanrikulu added.
(AY-ULG) 07.09.2004