Denmark offers referenda for Turkey’s EU bid

PPD’s leader Pia Kjaersgaard yesterday said Turkey did not have a place in Europe and it was unacceptable that no one consulted Danish people on this issue. Kjaersgaard released a statement and said they would propose referenda when the parliament is opened in October.

According to a poll in Denmark which was announced on September 19; 49 per cent of Danish people are against Turkey’s EU membership while 31 per cent of them are supportive and 20 of them are floating. Human rights organizations: Torture is systematic

Human rights organizations in Ankara reacted to the EU Commissioner Gunter Verheugen’s remarks as there was not systematic torture in Turkey and a campaign called "For a Turkey without torture" was started by the Human Rights’ Association (IHD) yesterday, Anatolia news agency said.

IHD Chairman Husnu Ondul told a news briefing with other representatives from the human rights organizations, they aimed to collect 100 thousand signatures during the campaign which was started in 33 different provinces. Ondul said they would hand over the signatures to be collected to the Turkish Parliament at the end of three months

Ondul said Turkey was still one of the countries in which torture was going on systematically. "We call the government to investigate the torture cases in a determined way and to dismiss the torturers, their chiefs and the political authorities" he added.