Hurriyet English with wires
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Haziran 30, 2008 16:55
Turkish foreign ministry said on Monday it regretted a report of a European parliamentary assembly, calling Turkey to assume a "positive attitude" towards Greek minority in two Turkish islands.
Turkey regretted the adoption of the report by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), and the report was based on prejudices, a statement by the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.
Swiss parliamentarian Andreas Gross, the president of the Socialist Group in PACE, was the rapporteur of the report entitled "Gokceada and Bozcaada: preserving the bicultural character of the two Turkish islands as a model for cooperation between Turkey and Greece in the interest of the peoples concerned".
In the report the committee urged Turkey to take “a positive attitude” to the small number of ethnic Greeks still living on the Turkish Aegean islands of Gokceada and Bozcaada and their descendants.
The committee also welcomed a number of positive gestures already taken, but called on Turkey to show more interest towards solutions of education and land issues relating to ethnic Greeks, and steps to repair the damage done to the natural and cultural heritage of the islands.
The report ignored the principle of "reciprocity" established between Turkey and Greece under the Lausanne Treaty, the Turkish foreign ministry said in the statement.
It also said Turkey told the rapporteur to correct the prejudiced expressions and serious mistakes in the report before it was released, however the corrections were not made.
The report did not reflect the amendments made to improve the situation of the non-Muslim minority living in Turkey, the statement added.
Photo: DHA
