Danish socialist MP deported from Turkey
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* Europe Søren Søndergaard, a member of the Danish parliament for the Red-Green Alliance was detained in Ankara on Friday 29. November, put in front of a judge, ordered to pay a fine, and expelled from Turkey.
During his 12 hour detention, Søndergaard, a member of the Fourth international's International Executive Committee, was "convicted" of violating a (secret) exclusion order banning him from entering Turkey as a supposed "Threat to the security of the state"
According to the Turkish ambassador in Denmark, the entrance ban was motivated by Søndergaard's "support of PKK terrorists." including, for example, the 14 March 1996 meeting the deputy hosted in the Danish parliament for members of the Kurdish parliament in exile.
The entrance ban was issued on August 16, the day after Søndergaard participated in the first Ankara court hearing in a case against Kemal Koç, a Danish citizen of Kurdish origin, who was arrested in early July, tortured and charged of supporting the Kurdish liberation struggle. After 42 days in prison Koç was expelled to Denmark on 16 August. But his trial is still pending.
After Søndergaard's detention, the Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Niels Helveg
Pedersen, called the Turkish ambassador to a meeting in the Ministry, where he demanded that the full list of "unwanted" Danes be made public.
The Socialist Peoples Party (SF) raised the expulsion in the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee, and the Socialist Group in the European Parliament demanded that the European Union freeze an ECU 375 m. payment due to Turkey as part of that country's Customs Union with the EU.
"After the arrest and expulsion of Søren Søndergaard, plus the information that Turkey has a list of 'unwanted European politicians, there is no doubt: Turkey should not have a penny," said Kirsten Jensen, chairman of the Danish Social Democratic group in the European Parliament.
After arriving back in Denmark, Søren Søndergaard told radio and TV that he encouraged the continuation and strengthening of the fight for human rights in Turkey,
"While it is a big surprise, my expulsion is only a little thing," he said. "The real problem is all those people who are still detained, or who live with daily human rights abuses, random jailing and torture. It is them who our solidarity should concern," said Søndergaard. *