11 February 2010 / TODAY’S ZAMAN, ANKARA
The Turkish Parliamentarians’ Association (TPB) and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Wednesday jointly called on the Turkish government and Parliament to put the issue of “statelessness” on their agenda.
At a joint press conference held in Ankara, Hasan Korkmazcan, the head of the TBP, and Michel Gaudé, the representative of UNHCR in Turkey, launched a handbook titled “Nationality and Statelessness: A Handbook for Parliamentarians.”“We believe that the best way the parliamentarians can demonstrate their determination to reduce or eliminate the incidence of statelessness is to adopt national legislation that is consistent with international law,” Gaudé said.
In many countries, the fact that stateless people live on the margins of society and are undocumented makes it difficult to understand their situation. The dimensions of the problem of statelessness in Turkey are not known. Turkey has not yet ratified the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.
