Turkey backs reforms to boost EU membership
The special session came just days after Turkish leaders shelved an effort by government lawmakers to criminalise adultery, a demand that had upset EU officials and Turkish women’s groups and human rights activists.
The government took the unusual step of calling a Sunday session to pass the package in advance of an October 6 EU report that will assess if Turkey is ready to start membership negotiations.
European Union leaders had warned that the report could be negative if the adultery proposal was included in the new penal code.
Both Turkey’s government and opposition parties supported the criminal law changes, which must be approved by President Ahmet Necdet Sezer.
The reforms revamp Turkey’s decades-old criminal laws to bring them up to EU standards. The package includes laws against rape, paedophilia and torture and a strengthening of human rights standards.
The vote came three days after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged to EU officials that the package would be passed in time for the report, which will be used by the leaders of the 25 EU nations to decide in December whether to give Turkey a date to start talks.
After meeting with Mr Erdogan on Thursday, EU Enlargement Commissioner Guenter Verheugen said once the penal reforms were approved, there would be “no more obstacles” to preparing the report.
EU officials signalled the report was likely to recommend that membership talks begin. But they also indicated it would be years before Turkey could become a full member.
While many European leaders support negotiations with Turkey, there are worries within the bloc about taking in a large, poor and overwhelmingly Muslim country with a questionable record on democracy and human rights.
“Unfortunately, the debate over adultery has created serious doubts in Europe about Turkey’s determination to preserve its secularity,” Onur Oymen, a lawmaker from the main opposition party, said after the vote.
Mr Erdogan’s governing party has roots in the Islamic movement but has made Turkey’s EU bid its top priority. It has carried out sweeping democratic reforms, broadening freedom of expression, granting greater rights to minority Kurds and trimming the role of the military in politics.
But the demand by conservative supporters of Mr Erdogan’s party for the criminalisation of adultery threatened to derail negotiations with the EU, until Mr Erdogan reportedly pledged to drop the adultery clause during his visit to the bloc’s headquarters last Thursday.
