ANKARA, Jan 30 (A.A) - Mesut Yilmaz, the leader of the Motherland Party (ANAP) said on Thursday that education language is Turkish in Turkey, adding that no education in another language can be permitted in Turkey.
''No body can regard this issue as a matter of his/her own region,'' told Yýlmaz in the ANAP parliamentary group meeting.
Noting that the adjustment bill is not a bill that only reflects the views of himself and ANAP, Yilmaz said that ''we can't sacrifice our future for the concerns of the past.''
Yilmaz said that no body has the right to regard all the people living in Turkey as traitor, adding that the number of traitors in the country is fewer than those in other countries.
Noting that certain groups supported by separatists submitted petitions demanding education in Kurdish in the country recently in order to provoke the positive steps taken by Turkey, Yilmaz said that ''the education language is Turkish in Turkey. We don't have any commitments to anybody on this issue, the EU has also not asked for anything from us on this issue.''
Yilmaz said that the aim of the campaign supported by the terrorists is to bring onto agenda again the prohibition on language in Turkey and to push Turkey away from the EU process, adding that ''a few separatists don't have the right to impede Turkey's EU process. Separatists want people to support this activity and to reach political goals. No body can regard this issue as the matter of his/her region.''
Yilmaz said that the adjustment bill which was sent to the parliament by the government didn't fully reflect the views and expectations of him and the ANAP.
The adjustment bill does not meet the expectations in democracy and freedoms within the scope of Turkey's EU membership, said Yilmaz and noted that the bill was prepared by taking into consideration the views of coalition parties. ''The bill reflects a consensus that was reached at the minimum level. Thus, no section of the society particularly the non-governmental organizationss (NGOs) is pleased with the form of the bill. The unclear expressions used in the bill constitutes another problem.''
''I also met with EU officials last week and I saw that they also share our concerns,'' said Yilmaz, adding that the amendments to be taken should be in conformity with Articles 9 and 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and the verdicts of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Noting that every regulation that misses these basic elements need to be amended in the future, Yilmaz said that ''ECHR says in its decisions about the right to freedom of thought and expression that regulations to be made in member countries in these issues should be clear, and definite. We discussed this issue in the leaders summit on Monday and the coalition parties decided to undertake a study in their own groups. Any improvement here will constitute an important opportunity in respect of overcoming the deficiencies regarding our membership to the EU. We must stick to our EU membership perspective. Any step which will divert Turkey from EU process, will negatively affect our future. We must reach our goal of becoming the member of EU in 2000, as we missed this chance in 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.''
''The politics should improve the freedoms in the adjustment bill,'' said Yilmaz, adding that politics is the only institution which can do that.
Noting that the debate on the adjustment bill showed that certain circles in the country regarded everybody living in the country as traitors, Yilmaz said that no body has the right to regard all the people living in Turkey as traitors.
''We must give up the state mentality which regards its citizens as enemy to itself and which regard the society as enemy to the administrators and which regard the individuals as slaves of the state institutions,'' Yilmaz added.