THE HAGUE, 02/10/03 - The Turkish Ambassador Tacan Ildem has expressed his opposition to the avenging of family honor. The principle is as unacceptable in Turkey as it is in the Netherlands, he said yesterday during a courtesy visit to Integration Minister Rita Verdonk.

During the meeting, which had been planned earlier, Verdonk talked to the ambassador about the murder of Zarife, a Turkish girl from Almelo who was shot dead by her father on 12 August during a holiday in Turkey because she had allegedly dishonored the family by her Western behavior. The ambassador shared Verdonk's opinion that Zarife's murder was a very serious incident and killing to avenge family honor was unacceptable in the Netherlands.

Ildem stressed that such actions had nothing to do with religion, but were completely a question of social background. "Education should change this, in his view," the ministry reported. The ambassador said that in his contacts with the Turkish community, he always points out that they must comply with the current laws and regulations in the Netherlands.

Last June, an article was dropped from the Turkish criminal code, which specified that murders committed to avenge family honor qualified for remission of the sentence. However, the consequences of abolishing this article must still be shown, the ministry observed. "In practice, we see that up to now, in comparable cases, the judge often reduced the sentence without formally invoking the article. "

The Pim Fortuyn List (LPF) has proposed specifying a higher maximum sentence for murders involving family honor in the Dutch penal code. Labour (PvdA) MP Albayrak also sympathized with this suggestion.