STOCKHOLM — Turkey’s aspiration to join the European Union motivated it to make a series of remarkable transformations between 2000 and 2005.
Ankara amended a third of the country’s authoritarian Constitution. Its legislators enacted human rights laws in line with international standards. It abolished the death penalty. It provided greater legal protections for women. It introduced new safeguards against torture and reformed the penal system. It scrapped draconian restrictions on freedom of expression, association and the media.
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