Turkey pledges to change terror law to win EU visas
Turkey has submitted a position paper to Brussels promising to amend the counterterrorism law to decriminalize journalistic opinions, a long-standing demand from Europe before it will grant Turks visa-free travel.
Turkey wants to turn a page in its strained relationship with the European Union to obtain visa-free travel, promising changes to its counterterrorism law to comply with the bloc’s human rights norms.
Presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Wednesday that Turkey has submitted proposals to the EU showing it will comply with the remaining seven of 72 criteria required to win its citizens unrestricted travel in the 26 EU states comprising the Schengen Area.
“We hope and expect that this will win Turkish-EU relations new momentum. I can say that a new process has begun from today,” Kalin said at a news conference.
A clause already in Turkey’s penal code that says critical opinions expressed in journalism are not criminal will now be added to the counterterrorism law, Cumhuriyet newspaper reported. Its omission from the separate anti-terrorism statute has helped turn Turkey into the world’s biggest jailer of journalists, with more than 120 behind bars for their work.
