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| Europe |
| Turkey: Hollow Promises for Kurds Displaced by Army |
| 2005-03-08 |
| (Ankara, March 7, 2005) - On a key benchmark for European Union membership, the Turkish government has failed to honor pledges to help 378,000 displaced people, mainly Kurds, return home more than a decade after the army forced them from their villages in southeastern Turkey, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. On March 7-8, the European Union's commissioner for enlargement, Olli Rehn, and a delegation of other high-level EU officials will visit Ankara to discuss Turkey's membership. The EU officials should press Turkey to take effective steps to facilitate the return of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) to southeastern Turkey, where Turkish security forces expelled hundreds of thousands from their villages during an internal armed conflict that raged during the 1980s and 1990s. The 37-page report, "Still Critical: Prospects in 2005 for Internally Displaced Kurds in Turkey," details how the Turkish government has failed to implement measures for IDPs the United Nations recommended nearly three years ago. Since the European Union confirmed Turkey's membership candidacy in December, the Turkish government appears to have shelved plans to enact those measures. |
| Posted by:Steve |