(6 Mar 1995) Turkish/Nat
On the day Turkey signs a customs agreement with the European Union - a first step towards the country's membership in the trading bloc - new claims surfaced about human rights abuses in Turkey.
APTV has visited the Kurdish village of Agarti Koyu, near the regional capital of Diyarbakir in south-east Turkey.
The village was allegedly destroyed by Turkish troops in an effort to clear it of supporters of the opposition Kurdish People's Workers Party, or PKK.
Until last year more than 300 farmers and their families lived in this village. Human rights observers accuse the military of systematically destroying the village which they suspect of assisting Kurdish rebels.
The government claims they only encourage villagers to move out of the countryside into the cities where they can be protected from the PKK.
Diplomats said the decision to pull down trade barriers with Turkey would strengthen Turkey's ties with the West and bolster its role as a bulwark against Islamic fundamentalism.
Greece has blocked its longtime rival's bid for years, citing Turkey's poor human rights record, and its support of the self-proclaimed Turkish government on the divided island of Cyprus.
But Greece dropped its veto last Friday, opening the way for Turkey to sign a package of financial aid and loans worth more than 1 billion dollars.
The customs union could still be blocked by the European Parliament. The EU's assembly has threatened to vote it down unless Turkey agrees to improve its human rights record.
Reports of alleged army abuses like that from this Kurdish village thus pose a serious threat to Turkey's relationship with the E.U.
The European Foreign Ministers gathered Monday in the Belgian capital of Brussels to sign the accord with Turkey and address other issues.
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