Jean Lambert was elected Green MEP for London in the 1999 European elections.
She is a full member of the Employment and Social Affairs Committee, a full member of the Petitions Committee, and a substitute member of the Citizens' Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs (Civil Liberties) Committee.
She is also a member of the Joint Parliamentary Committee for Malta, and involved in various intergroups as described below. She is a Vice-President of the Greens/European Free Alliance political Group in the European Parliament. This Group is made up of Green and Regionalist MEPs from around Europe and has 44 Members.

Turkey’s Refusal To Take Part In The War

I was personally pleased...

by Jean Lambert

The Green Party has adopted a consistent principled stand against the war. We are standing firm on this now and we still consider that this was an illegal invasion.
That arguments and excuses given that this was a war dealing with weapons of mass destruction are simply not best dealt with through physical force.
Such action implies that the more powerful you are the less likely you are to be invaded.
For us as a Party, it is imperative that we return to working through international institutions and through observing treaties.

For many years I have been trying to raise the human rights issues of the Kurdish people in the European Parliament.
Since the war began, there is no doubt that we have seen greater attention paid to the situation of Kurdish people.
How unfortunate that it has taken such violent and illegal action to do so. Many people are much more aware now of the difficulties they face.

Although, in some respects, the situation of the Kurds actually made perception about the invasion complicated, you can understand how for Kurds living within Iraq's borders that the war could be a positive way forward.
However, equally, for the Kurds living within Turkey's borders it could prove far more repressive.
The question now is how do we use the possibilities that have been opened up by this action in order to secure human rights for the Kurdish people and their recognition as a people combined with greater political autonomy.

I was personally pleased to see Turkey's Parliament refuse to allow the United States to use Turkish bases.
The focus that has naturally been on the Kurds of Iraq, should allow us now to talk about the plight of Kurds elsewhere, such as Turkey. We need to make sure we link the issues of the people across those existing borders and to look at an overall settlement which brings recognition with the states.

The impressions I have about the plight of Kurds in Turkey since the war started is that there has been little improvement. On the contrary we are still seeing intense monitoring and scrutiny.
The recent arrest of Ilisu Dam campaigner Nick Hilyard and of those that were with him looking into the implications of the new pipeline for people on the ground is just one example.
The judgement from the European Court of Human Rights about the sentencing of Adullah Ocalan is also throwing up problems for the Government, although they could start blaming this on the previous regime and work for improvements.
Indeed, how the Government responds to these public legal challenges is going to be very important. They could make a start by improving Ocalan's prison conditions before moving him to a retrial.

On the matter of the banning of HADEP, the issue of banning political parties is highly problematic.
Of course we have the current example in the EU itself of the Spanish Courts upholding the ban on Batisuna.
We can say that the Parliament is following the issue of HADEP closely and that the issue has been raised formally in Parliament and with the Turkish Authorities.

Regarding the imprisonment of Leyla Zana and her colleagues, the European Parliament will be sending an official delegation to the second stage of her hearing. Obviously as a former Sakharov prize winner for the Parliament, we feel a special responsibility towards her and her colleagues.
How will EU negotiations now be pressing on with Turkey after its mixed reaction to the war and the somewhat mixed messages from the AKP government about its position on fulfilling its human rights and civil rights obligations as embodied in the Copenhagen Criteria?

Enlargement has raised many issues for the Parliament, only some of which are now being addressed. We have to solve the problem of Cyprus which has become ever more pressing as Enlargement becomes a reality.
When we are looking at future relations with Turkey we also need to remain alert to the influence of the US within this. Before the invasion of Iraq, the US was most supportive of Turkey's admission to the EU.
It is not clear now if that will now still be the case.
Also we do have to take into account the views of the new EU countries who may have a different perspective on Turkey's membership. What we have to reinforce with Turkey's Government is that human rights and economic stability are inseparable.
They cannot solve their economic problems until they have dealt with their human rights problems.

There is a huge problem generally in Iraq concerning aid and the future of refugees from both within and outside the country. The Parliament will want to see movement on this subject and, given that colleagues of mine from the Green/EFA Group visited the Maxmur camp not so long ago, I know we will have a vested interest in wanting to see the safety and security of the people currently living there.

So what is the outlook? I tend to be optimistic by nature but there is no doubt that the situation is very difficult and that the current instability externally will not help the internal stability of Turkey for example.
On a more positive note, though, the strong statements from Kurdish leaders in Iraq about seeking autonomy rather than independence have been both useful and reassuring.
Again we need to stress that the Turkish Government has more to gain by taking a positive response on human rights than it does by continuing repression.