Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I warmly congratulate Mr Oostlander on producing this very balanced report. I can offer him some words of consolation: even if the official spokesperson of the Group of the European People’s Party does not support his report, the official spokesperson of the Social Democrats is genuinely 99% behind him. This can sometimes be comforting in this House. As Mr Oostlander rightly says, the report shows that the door is open, but the path is arduous. Now there are some people who tend to emphasise the open door, while others stress the arduous path. I personally, and the majority of my group, believe that both aspects should be supported equally. The starting point was the state philosophy of Kemalism, which Mr Oostlander criticised, and we no longer use this term in the report. I also think that Kemalism has two sides, a positive side, which supports a republican, secular state and rejects religious domination, in this case that of Islam over the civil authorities. Over the years, however, in the shadow of Kemalism – though not as a result of Kemalism itself – the army has risen to dominance. Now the new government, as the Commissioner already mentioned, has a somewhat different philosophy. For this reason, the army is keeping a watchful eye on it, although – and here too I am behind Commissioner Verheugen – there are, thank goodness, some members of the military who recognise the path to democracy, because they know that is also the path to Europe. I also consider the initiatives of the Turkish Government gradually to remove the military from areas not directly connected to security, such as the media and education, to be the right way forward. The road ahead is still a long and arduous one, and there will continue to be some resistance, but I believe that the path Turkey has chosen is the right one. This includes the question of minorities too. Now, on the subject of minorities, Mr Van Orden, we are not talking about a small minority of 2 to 3 per cent here. We are talking in some instances about very large minorities, especially if we are referring to the Kurdish minority. But there are of course other minorities, Greek, Armenian, and Syrian minorities, which must likewise be given due consideration. May I remind you that Turkey until recently disputed that it had any minorities at all. It no longer spoke of minorities at all, other than religious minorities. It was precisely due to the insistence of this Parliament, together with the Commission, but probably especially this Parliament, that we have managed to change these things. If we had always been as soft in our demands as Mr Van Orden wants, then we would not be where we are now. I know, too, that Commissioner Verheugen has often been criticised in Turkey for his tough but clear words. Only in this way can we also help Turkey to continue on this path of change and progress with reform, which is the right path. (Applause) My final remarks concern the issue of Cyprus. I visited Cyprus recently – the Greek part of the island, I hasten to add. I saw how delighted people were to be able to visit their old villages and homes. I also heard many Greek Cypriots say that they were given a very warm welcome by the Turkish Cypriots, which cannot be easy when you suddenly invite someone to your home, knowing that you were actually the person who occupied the house. And yet these friendly contacts have resulted. I do not know how long this will last. Messrs Denktash senior and junior probably even conceived this measure of opening the border as a way of forcing the international community to recognise the Republic of Northern Cyprus. I only recall what it was like with the GDR, although of course the two things are not entirely comparable. What one side wants is one thing, but the reality is quite another. And the reality is that, sooner or later, Cyprus will be a united Cyprus, because this unnatural border, this last border of walls and barbed wire, can no longer be sustained. If we can help – and Cyprus’ accession and our positive, critical stance towards Turkey will help – then it would be a great success for this Europe to see this last barbed-wire border disappear from Europe. (Applause)

Political group: PSE