EU irked by Turkish adultery law
Turkey's plans to make adultery a crime could affect its chances of

European Union, EU enlargement commissioner Guenter Verheugen says.
The bill, to be presented to parliament next week, may be seen as Islamic

entering Turkish law, he warned.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a devout Muslim, says the bill will

protect women from deception.
An EU report due out in October will assess Turkey's progress towards

membership criteria.
The adultery law is part of a package of sweeping changes to the penal

which include the abolition of torture and the expansion of individual
liberties. The changes are an effort to bring Turkey's legal code into

European human rights legislation.
Bad impression
Mr Verheugen, who has spent the last few days touring Turkey, expressed

concerns in an interview with the Turkish Vatan newspaper.
"If Turkey tries to include crimes that are not in other countries' laws

penal code, European Union countries could interpret this as Islamic law
entering Turkish law," he told the paper.
He added that he was not "defending adultery", but said "Turkey should not

the impression... that it is introducing Islamic elements into its legal

while engaged in a great project such as the EU".
We think that Turkey should join the EU, but not really accepting ...

aspect of European society at present
Temel Karamollaoglu,
Islamist Saadet party
Women's groups and liberal commentators have condemned the bill, saying it

be used against women and pushes the secular Muslim state closer to an

legal model.
But the main opposition party says it will not challenge it, provided men

the same penalties as women.
The BBC's Virginia Gidley-Kitchin says adultery used to be illegal in

until 1996, when the Constitutional Court struck the law down because it
penalised women more than men.
Men were deemed to have been adulterous if they were involved in a

affair; but women could be charged if they were unfaithful only once.
Temel Karamollaoglu, a member of the Islamist Saadet party - which is more
conservative than Mr Erdogan's governing AKP - says the law is necessary

protect the family and the society.
"At present adultery is accepted as a cause for divorce, and it is not

in society," he told the BBC. "The point is whether it should be

not.
"We think that Turkey should join the EU, but not really accepting every

in the moral value, not every aspect of European society at present.

may have different cultures. I accept European Union as a multi-cultural,
multi-religious society."
Positive
Women's groups plan to demonstrate against the bill when it is presented

parliament on 14 September.
Canan Arin, of the Women's Rights Centre at the Istanbul Bar Association,

it is a violation of the constitution protecting individual's privacy.
"Everyone has the right to demand respect for his private and family

said. Ms Arin fears the bill will work against women, as traditional women

reluctant to complain about their husbands.
"If they bring it, it will provoke honour killings more than ever," she

The BBC's Jonny Dymond in Istanbul says Mr Verheugen has given the

enjoying his visit but has stressed that it is the implementation of

that he is most interested in.
He stressed that the use of torture must be punished and he called for

cultural freedoms for Turkey's large Kurdish community.
According to our correspondent, it seems pretty clear from his more

comments and demeanour that Mr Verheugen wants to give Turkey the kind of

which would boost its membership hopes.

EU irked by Turkish adultery law
Turkey's plans to make adultery a crime could affect its chances of joining the
European Union, EU enlargement commissioner Guenter Verheugen says.
The bill, to be presented to parliament next week, may be seen as Islamic law
entering Turkish law, he warned.