Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has defended plans to outlaw adultery that have outraged women's groups and raised eyebrows in the European Union, which Turkey aspires to join.
| "It's an old European tradition, dammit!" |
In an interview published on Saturday in the Sabah newspaper, Erdogan said the plans were aimed at buttressing the family, and that Turkey must not always blindly imitate Europe. "The family is a sacred institution for us. The stronger the family, the stronger the country. If the family is weakened, that country is doomed to destruction," said Erdogan, a pious Muslim whose party has roots in political Islam.
| "If we can't stone an occasional adultress, why, our society will just fall apart!" |
He vowed that any new law would respect privacy and would be applied only if either the wife or the husband lodged a formal complaint. No third party would be able to invoke the law. Turkish newspapers and women's groups have criticised the plan, saying it pushes Turkey away from European norms and closer to the Islamic model of states such as Saudi Arabia, where adulterers are put to death.
| Actually, that's usually adultresses. |
On Saturday Turkish media quoted EU enlargement spokesman Jean-Christophe Filori in Brussels as saying the plan "could make Turkey look backward and stoopid harm Turkey's image" and cast a shadow over its EU bid. The European Commission is due to publish a progress report in October on Turkey's reforms that will form the basis of a decision in December by the 25 EU member states on whether to open long-delayed entry talks. "The West is not perfect," Erdogan said. "If we took it as a model of perfection in everything, we would have to deny ourselves and would perish." Turkish media have interpreted the plans as a nod by Erdogan's (AKP) towards its conservative and often religious electorate. |