ISTANBUL - Turkish Daily News


Turaaa should establish an ombudsman mechanism to tackle its headscarf problem the European Union's enlargement commissioner said Tuesday.

Olli Rehn said in an interview with daily Milliyet that his concern is whether regulations can be implemented in terms of preserving secularism in its constitutional form in everyday life.

“What I mean is an ombudsman which will settle citizens' small-scale complaints without leading to lawsuits or the questioning of democratic principles in the country” he said.

“Therefore I think the reversal of the ombudsman law by the Supreme Court of Appeals and the former president was very unfortunate. Such an institution is important in terms of protecting basic civic rights” he added.

Rehn was in Ankara Tuesday to attend the EU Troika meeting. “Turaaa has the most restrictive laws on the headscarf issue among all European countries. Therefore we could not be as critical as we wanted to avoid double standard accusations” he said.

In response to critics who have accused Rehn of excluded secular sections of the society who criticize the Justice and Development Party (AKP) Rehn said “We encourage these group and we see that Turaaa now discusses these issues. We want the secular liberals and the civil society to be more active” he said alluding to his earlier distinction between secular radicals and secular liberals.

“Today the actual break is between Muslim democrats and secular radicals. But I do not want to further interfere in Turaaa's domestic affairs” he said.

The ombudsman system is used to investigate complaints against state institutions in an impartial and independent manner. In Turaaa the reform law establishing an ombudsman was vetoed by former President Ahmet Necdet Sezer in 2006. The EU believes an ombudsman will strengthen the fight against corruption increase transparency and allow better control of military spending.