Eurpean Social Forum/ London 14-17th October 2004 

Turkey and the EU: whose democracy and whose Europe? 


There is a lot of talk at present about Turkey coming a step closer to entering the European Union. 
It is supposed to have made sufficient progress in democratic reforms to make this possible. 
Gunther Verheugen of the EU Enlargement Commission thinks Turkeys entry into the EU is only a matter of time. 


But there is a double hypocrisy present here. Firstly, Verheugen and leading EU figures have simply closed 
their eyes to the many articles in Turkeys laws which threaten freedom of _expression and freedom of the press. 
There are at present 20 journalists in Turkeys jails, because even after supposed reforms, the forces of the state 
severely restrict what people can write or say. 


Moreover, torture continues in Turkey, though there is a greater emphasis now on practicing psychological torture 
that leaves no obvious physical marks. Torturers who have killed still benefit from legal impunity, even on the rare 
occasions when they are tried in the courts, and a record of torture and murder actually results in promotion, not demotion, 
let alone punishment. 


Turkey has more than 10,000 political prisoners. So far 117 people have died since the year 2000 in the resistance 
in Turkeys F-Type prisons to the solitary confinement practiced against political prisoners. European leaders like 
Verheugen have nothing to say about this: the F-Type prisons are based on European prison models, and the 
extreme use of isolation and other sanctions against politically motivated prisoners have made in Europe stamped all over them. 


Nor is there a right to strike in Turkey: a strike by tire workers was recently banned on the grounds that it was a threat to national security. And the rights of national and ethnic minorities like the Kurds continue to be trampled on. 


The other wing of the hypocrisy present here is provided by Europe itself. Europe's role in Turkeys prison repression 
has already been mentioned. But Europe is not an agent of democratization. Europe as a whole, and its individual states, 
display an increasing tendency towards repression. One example of this is the anti-terror laws proscribing foreign organizations, accompanied by increasing harassment of the politically active (not exclusively those of foreign origin). There is also an increase in extraditions of political activists, repatriation of refugees and a growth in the influence of the far right in Europe. 

What the EU really wants from Turkey is not democracy, but stability, so it actually encourages repression of the 
class and national struggles on the soil of Turkey. 


The democratic forces of Turkey and Europe must oppose Turkeys entrance into the EU as well as they have to oppose 
to the EU as an international construct of the multinationals. Let's globalize resistance to imperialism, capitalism and fascism! 


DHKC International 
(Revolutionary Peoples Liberation Front)

                                                                           19/10/2004