Cyprus-Forum.com

[humanist]

http://www.cyprusweekly.com.cy/default. ... wsID=304_3

Hopes Turkish election result may help Cyprus

EuroMPs hope Turkish election result may help Cyprus settlement

By Angelos Marcopoulos

STRASBOURG

JOHANNES Swoboda, a former EU Rapporteur on Turkey, expressed the hope that the result of Sunday's elections in Turkey may reduce the influence of the military and help politicians reach a Cyprus settlement.

"I hope that the elections will give a clear mandate for talks on Cyprus not to be stubborn and that the result will not give the military the power to determine things, rejecting the military's aspirations to interfere in internal affairs and Cyprus,'' Swoboda, an Austrian who is also the vice-president of the Socialist Group in the EU Parliament told The Cyprus Weekly.

But prospects of a fair election looked grim following this week's murder of Tuncay Seyranlioglu, an independent candidate in the elections.

The President of the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly, Dutch MP Rene Van der Linden strongly denounced the murder saying he was ``shocked by such a barbaric act.''

He called on the Turkish people "to demonstrate their sense of responsibility and to avoid anything which could undermine the elections.''

Meanwhile, the imposition of a minimum 10% of the total vote as a threshold for any party to enter parliament was denounced as contrary to democratic norms, by the Swiss MP Andreas Gros, the CoE's Rapporteur on Democracy. Gros is currently in Turkey, together with 32 other CoE MPs to observe the elections.

In another development MEPs denounced Turkey's continuing violation of freedom of speech and basic human rights.

"The continuing attacks on freedom of expression are hampering democracy in Turkey and cause great alarm,'' charged French MP Rudy Salles.

"Turkey continues to violate Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and to flout its obligations as a member state of the CoE," he stressed in a question dealing with the responsibility of CoE ministers responsible for ensuring implementation of the EuroCourt judgements.

[paliometoxo]

lets hope so but i doubt it