ANKARA, Sept 14 (AFP) - The Turkish parliament meets in extraordinary session Tuesday to push through a massive series of amendments to the country's fascist-inspired penal code, but the effort aimed at easing Ankara's EU entry bid could backfire because of a clause making adultery a jailable offense.
The new bill aims to modify nearly all 348 articles of the law copied from Italian legislation in 1926, just three years after Kemal Ataturk founded the modern Turkish Republic from the ruins of the Ottoman empire.
In order to speedily westernize the young republic and bring it, in his words, "to the level of contemporary civilization," Ataturk launched a sequence of spectacular reforms, changing the alphabet, the language, the mode of dress -- and the laws of the land.
The method was to adapt existing legislation from other countries to Turkey's needs; the civil code was taken from Switzerland, the penal code from Mussolini's Italy.
But the laudable effort of providing greater individual freedoms and banning torture has been clouded by the adultery clause in a section of the draft dealing with "crimes against the family."
The measure introduced by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP), rooted in pro-Islamic movements but describing itself as "conservative," has caused a furore both nationally and internationally.
In Turkey, vocal opposition came from liberals, feminists, most of the media -- and even a member of Erdogan's own government.
The minister of culture and tourism, Erkan Mumcu, 41, said in interviews Monday that criminalizing adultery has "no social value."
"It is of no use to the people who are victims of adultery," he told the daily Hurriyet. "The pain that... the children and the spouses (in a family involved in such a probe) are likely to suffer will far outstrip any benefits a legal investigation may provide."
Opposition from EU leaders was just as strong.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, whose country is one of the most supportive of Ankara's EU hopes, warned Monday that, "If this proposal ... were to become firmly fixed in law, then that would create difficulties for Turkey."
Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said in Brussels that his country "favors Turkey's entry into the EU", but added that he hoped "such measures will not be adopted" because they would constitute "a negative sign."
Gunther Verheugen, the European commissioner for enlargement, was the first to criticize the measure during a trip to Turkey last week.
"I cannot understand how a measure like this could be considered at such a time," Verheugen said. "It can only be a joke."
The controversy comes as Ankara, an EU candidate since 1999, awaits a crucial October 6 report by the European Commission that will recommend whether or not to launch membership talks.
The recommendation will serve as a basis for a final decision on December 17 by European leaders on whether to set a date for the start of negotiations.
Prime Minister Erdogan, a devout Muslim who says the measure aims to "protect the unity of the family," has so far refused to back down despite the national and international uproar.
Justice Minister Cemil Cicek counter-attacked on Monday, saying: "It may be argued that some dispositions of the penal code clash with the values of the modern world. But there is something else that clashes with the values of the modern world, and that is to break one's promise.
"If, on December 17, Europe does not give us a date to start negotiations, it will have broken its promise," he said.