ANKARA - Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, Justice Minister Cemil Cicek and Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu held a working meeting to assess Turkey's situation in EU process and to discuss the things to be fulfilled until December 17th.
Releasing a statement on Thursday, Turkish Secretariat General for the EU (ABGS) said, ''our government attributes priority to Turkey's reaching a modern democratic order which it deserves and expects. This target coincides with our activities for accession to the EU.''
''Likewise, European Commission determines that Turkey has met political criteria sufficiently and made a recommendation to start entry talks with Turkey. This recommendation envisaged that several laws related with these political criteria will be put into force before December 17th,'' noted the statement.
''During the meeting, ministers took up the issues which should be fulfilled in short term. They have agreed to rapidly complete several legal arrangements which are Criminal Procedure Code, Law on Execution of Penalties and Measures, Law on Associations, and Law on Foundations,'' said the statement.
The statement noted, ''negotiations on some of these laws were delayed due to recess of Parliament and some of them are still drafts and have to be presented to Parliament. Ministers agreed during the meeting that new Law on Foundations should reflect a liberal understanding.''
''Ministers have discussed additional steps to actively implement all reforms which are fight against torture and maltreatment, and elimination of problems in the areas of religious freedoms and freedom of organization and meeting. They announced one more time that European Commission and Council of Europe Anti-Torture Committee have confirmed that the statements of some non-governmental organizations claiming that there is a systematic torture in Turkey are baseless. Our government will pursue its 'zero tolerance' policy against torture,'' added the statement.
(GC-AÖ) 28.10.2004