We will have women parliament members wearing headscarf in the next term, says Bagis

Hosted by Turkey's Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis, the kick-off meeting of the Project on Raising Awareness on the Procedures of the Individual Application in the Area of Human Rights implemented by the Ministry for European Union Affairs in cooperation with the Constitutional Court, Ombudsman Institution, Human Rights Institution of Turkey and Ministry of Justice, with the support of the British Embassy was held in Ankara. Bagis made an inaugural speech at the meeting which was also attended by President of the Constitutional Court Hasim Kilic, Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin, Chief Ombudsman M. Nihat Omeroglu, President of the Human Rights Institution of Turkey Dr. Hikmet Tulen and Deputy Head of Mission of British Embassy Ms Janet Douglas. Touching on the reform package launched the by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday, Bagis said, "This reform package is a milestone in the history of Turkish democracy. I do hope that we will have women members of the Parliament wearing their scarf freely in the next term. But the package is of course not limited to this. Respect for people's life styles will also be under the protection of law. We will fight more effectively against discrimination particularly based on religion, nation or ethnicity and increase the penalties for these crimes. Today we see that there is a remarkable decrease in applications to the European Court of Human Rights." In concluding his remarks, Bagis said that the democratization process is dynamic and many more reforms are yet to come to meet the expectations of our Nation.