EU Enlargement Commissioner Mr Guenter Verheugen told Turkey today it must completely stamp out torture before it can hope to begin negotiations on joining the European Union.
"It is not sufficient for us to see that in law torture is prohibited. We want to see the day when there are no police stations where people are tortured to death," Mr Verheugen told a session of the European Parliament.
At a summit in Copenhagen last week, EU leaders agreed to review Turkey's human rights performance in December 2004 before deciding whether to open accession talks. They also formally invited 10 candidates, including Cyprus, to join the EU in 2004.
Turkey passed a package of reforms in August aimed at meeting EU human rights criteria, including easing restrictions on the Kurdish language and lifting the death penalty in peacetime. More reforms are in the pipeline under the new Justice and Development Party (AKP) government which won a landslide election victory in November.
A change in Turkish law to allow the use of the Kurdish language in broadcasting came into effect today, but only the state broadcaster will be allowed to use it despite pressure from the EU to lift the ban entirely.