TURKEY: Parliament passed a sweeping series of constitutional amendments last week that would ease the path towards membership of the European Union.
However, it failed to lift the ban on education in the Kurdish language. The ban breaks the EU’s requirement of a guarantee on cultural rights. The government does not recognise the country’s 12 million Kurds as a minority. “The Turkish parliament turned what could have been a defining moment of change into just another lost opportunity,” said Elizabeth Andersen, executive director of the Europe and Central Asia Division of Human Rights Watch.
